A Candle in the Dark
by fireboy
Summary: [COMPLETED] Harry is suffering from depression and Ron, Hermione and Ginny come up with a plan to cheer him up. They return to Hogwarts to find that the ancient wards that protect the castle are failing and that Voldemort could attack at any time. HPCC.
1. Depression

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark  
  
Chapter 1: Depression.  
  
Harry lay on his bed staring at the ceiling. Nothing else mattered anymore, Sirius was dead, the closest thing to a father he ever had was dead. He hadn't moved for hours. He just didn't care anymore. All he did was sleep and eat. He couldn't believe what had happened was real. He kept hoping and praying that he would wake up and find out that it had all been a dream.  
  
He couldn't stop feeling guilty and depressed. He blamed himself, if he hadn't of believed that idiot Kreacher than Sirius would still be alive and everything would be alright. Anger boiled up inside him at the thought of Kreacher, but quickly subsided as depression took over. Hermione had been right; he did have a 'saving people thing.'  
  
Hermione and Ron's letters had been very sympathetic. 'We know how you feel, mate, we liked him to.' And 'Don't blame yourself, Harry, Sirius wouldn't want you to.' He did blame himself though, he couldn't help it. He only opened their letters out of a sense of duty.  
  
Every two days he sent a letter to the Order containing the same two words 'I'm fine' which was a complete and utter lie but he didn't care, nothing seemed to matter anymore, he felt as if his life had been drained.  
  
Even the Dursley's had stopped tormenting him as much but he suspected that that had something to do with Moody, Tonks, Lupin and the rest of the Order. It didn't matter though. He couldn't have cared less if the Dursley's had tormented him. Nothing had meaning anymore, nothing affected him. He just lay on his bed all day wishing that Sirius was still alive.  
  
He decided he had better send a letter to the Order so he stood up shakily, his legs stiff because they hadn't been used for so long. He walked over to the loose floorboard and pulled out a quill, ink and some parchment. He scribbled those same two words, 'I'm fine'.  
  
He went back to his bed and lay down on it waiting for Hedwig to return. He looked at his watch. Five thirty, He stared at the ceiling, wishing over and over again that Sirius was alive.  
  
A strong wave of depression flooded him, breaking down his weakened barriers, he's dead, and he isn't coming back, my second father. Anger quickly replaced depression and he clenched his fists so hard the knuckles turned white, he hated that foul, lying, idiot Kreacher. Who was the main cause of Sirius' death. He hated that evil cow Bellatrix. The anger faded and he lay limp and exhausted from all the emotions that were running through. He fell asleep, his face tight and streaked with tears.  
  
He was woken up by the soft flutter of wings and he opened his eyes to see that Hedwig had returned. He bent down and picked up the letter he had written. Without a word he tied it to her leg.  
  
"The Order" he said, his voice rough and hoarse. She hooted in concern before flying off. It was dark outside, there was no other option but to go back to sleep.  
  
Hope you enjoyed this. Keep reading and reviewing.  
  
Fireboy 


	2. Home to the Burrow

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 2: Home to the Burrow.  
  
Harry was woken up in the early hours of the morning by the sound of pecking at his window. He lay down, intending to ignore it, but it did not stop. Eventually he reached over , put on his glasses and went see what it was. He looked outside and saw Pig, Ron's owl. He removed the letter and chucked it on the floor deciding to read it later on.  
  
However Pig flew down to him and pecked his hand painfully. When Harry continued walking towards his bed Pig did it again.  
  
"I'll read it in the morning" said Harry, his voice hoarse from having been unused for so long. Pig clearly had other ideas. His hand stinging from having been pecked three times he bent down and picked up the letter.  
  
Scrawled in Ron's untidy handwriting in the top right was 'OPEN,' knowing he would get no peace from Pig until he opened it, he opened the envelope and withdrew the letter inside.  
  
'Harry  
  
Sorry about getting Pig to peck you but it was vital that you opened this straight away, mate. Dad is coming to pick you up at 7:30, DON'T TELL THE MUGGLES! He wants to slip away quietly, pack your trunk and be ready to leave immediately, mate. Hope you're ok,  
  
See you soon.  
  
Ron'  
  
Harry read the letter twice more and felt a tiny wave of happiness flow over him for a second. He looked at his watch, 3:18am, four hours! Harry could not get back to sleep, so after he had packed his trunk, he lay on his bed and waited for 7:30  
  
At 7:20 he heard movement downstairs, he took his wand out of his trunk, just in case. A minute later he heard a voice say outside his room 'alohamora' and heard the lock of his door spring open.  
  
Mr Weasly walked in.  
  
"Quickly, Harry, we must go."  
  
"How are we getting there?"  
  
"Portkey." Between them they carried the trunk downstairs, half way down Harry stumbled but regained his balance just in time.  
  
"Alright?" asked Mr Weasly.  
  
"Yeah, fine, let's go" he replied. They took the trunk into the garden where Harry immediately spotted a deflated basketball. They carried the trunk over to it. Harry put one hand on the trunk and one hand on the portkey.  
  
"3..2...1" Harry felt himself spinning then he landed painfully on the floor of the kitchen in the burrow.  
  
"Harry!" shrieked the voice of Mrs Weasly "You look awful, dear" it was true, his face was pale and tight and there were large black rims under his eyes from lack of sleep, she rushed towards him and embraced him in a motherly hug.  
  
"Oh Harry, we've all been so worried about you!" she said "but at least you're safe now". Harry didn't have the strength to do anything but nod his head.  
  
"You must be shattered, dear. Go up to Ron's room and get some sleep".  
  
Wearily he trudged up the stairs and into Ron's room, he noticed a camp bed on the floor and being careful not to wake Ron he undressed and climbed into it. 


	3. No Longer Alone

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot..  
  
A Candle in the Dark  
  
Chapter 3: No Longer Alone.  
  
Ron woke up not long after Harry had fallen asleep. He got up and saw Harry sound asleep on the camp bed. 'He looks dreadful' he thought to himself before heading downstairs.  
  
He saw his mum and dad in the kitchen.  
  
"Morning" he greeted.  
  
"Morning, dear" replied Mrs Weasly.  
  
"Harry looks terrible, what have they done to him?" Ron said indignantly.  
  
"Nothing," said a hoarse voice behind them. Harry was standing there in his pyjamas and dressing gown, "The Dursleys' haven't done anything to me, it's because of..it's because.. " He couldn't bring himself to say it, he couldn't make himself say that it was because of Sirius dying, but they knew what he meant.  
  
At that point Fred and George came downstairs, but their grins vanished as soon as they saw Harry.  
  
"Harry, what.?" Fred began, but Mrs Weasly stopped him with a look., they knew what she meant, no questions to be asked. Harry sat down at the table and put his head in his hands.  
  
"Harry, dear, would you like a cup of tea?" Mrs Weasly asked gently. Harry nodded. They heard footsteps on the stairs, Ron went to tell Ginny.  
  
"Ginny", he said, "Don't ask Harry any questions" she was slightly puzzled but nodded anyway. As soon as she got into the kitchen she saw what he meant, she stifled a gasp of horror but with great difficulty, instead of asking any questions she looked away from him.  
  
"Hedwig's back" said Ron motioning towards the window. Mr Weasly walked to the window and let her in. She held out her leg with two letters attached, one addressed to Mr and Mrs Weasly and one addressed to Harry, he already knew what the letter said but he opened it anyway. The letter read what it always did 'Ok, keep in touch'.  
  
After they had finished breakfast George suggested a game of quidditch.  
  
"I think Harry should rest" said Mrs Weasly.  
  
"No", said Harry, "I would love a game of quidditch". Mrs Weasly considered disagreeing, but decided not to, thinking that it would be good to give Harry something to take his mind off what had happened. If only for a little while.  
  
"Ok, then" said Mrs Weasly. Harry ran upstairs and grabbed his broom and hurried onto the quidditch pitch where Fred George and Ron were waiting. They kicked off into the air. Harry and Ron against Fred and George. Harry forgot all his worries in the joy of flight. Half an hour later Harry and Ron were beating Fred and George 70-40 when Mrs Weasly ran out on to the pitch. They flew down to meet her.  
  
"Hermiones just owled, she is going to be arriving at eleven, so that gives you an hour."  
  
"Excellent" said Ron and Harry together. Mrs Weasly noticed, with amazement, how much better Harry looked, some of the colour had returned to his cheeks and his skin looked less tight. His voice sounded more normal aswell.  
  
They decided to leave it at that. They dismounted and walked back to the Burrow. However ten minutes later Harry lost his happy look and returned to his depression.  
  
At ten to eleven Mr Weasly went to pick up Hermione. As soon as Hermione walked through the door and saw Harry she gasped.  
  
"Oh Harry" and rushed to give him a hug.  
  
"Hey Hermione."  
  
Ron took Hermione through to the next room, Ginny followed.  
  
"How long has he been like that?" Hermione asked concerned.  
  
"Ever since we picked him up" Ron replied  
  
"We need something to cheer him up, he's suffering from depression." said Hermione.  
  
They all thought for a minute, then:  
  
"I've got it!" exclaimed Ron.  
  
"What?" asked Hermione eagerly.  
  
"Well it's his birthday in a week isn't it? We could throw a party or something."  
  
"That's quite a good idea, actually" said Hermione.  
  
"I always have good ideas."  
  
"No you don't." replied Hermione promptly. Ginny, who had remained quiet throughout this, sensed an argument brewing.  
  
"Shut it you two, that's not all we can do, listen to this." And Ginny leaned forward and whispered her idea to them.  
  
A/N Hope that was ok, please R/R and let me know how it was. 


	4. Surprise

Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 4: Surprise.  
  
Ron and Hermione looked at Ginny impressed  
  
"That'll probably work," said Ron in an awed voice.  
  
" If it doesn't, I will be really surprised" agreed Hermione.  
  
"Me too," said Ginny, "but listen, we have got a lot to do and less then a week to do it in if we want this to work."  
  
"Should we tell mum?" asked Ron. Ginny thought for a minute before answering.  
  
"I think we have to, I mean, it can't be done without her permission".  
  
"Yeah, I suppose so".  
  
"C'mon," said Ginny, "we'd better go back into the kitchen" they returned to the kitchen and saw Harry still sitting at the kitchen table, but there was no one else to be seen.  
  
"Er.D'you know where mum is?"  
  
"Yeah, she's out in the yard".  
  
"Thanks" Hermione and Ginny headed out into the yard but Ron stayed behind.  
  
"Can I sit down?" he asked. Harry nodded. Ron pulled out a chair opposite and sat down. He didn't know where to start, there were so many questions that he wanted to ask but he didn't know where to start. Eventually he decided to be blunt.  
  
"We know you miss him, mate, we all do, but moping around and doing nothing all day isn't going to help nor is it going to bring him back". Harry just shrugged and looked away, he had been over all this in his mind but it didn't help. He just couldn't throw off the sadness that was smothering him. Ron just sat there; unable to think of anything else to say that might cheer him up. Eventually he shrugged and decided to hope that everything else went according to plan.  
  
Five minutes later Ginny and Hermione burst through the door and, beckoning to Ron, ran through to the next room  
  
"Mum's agreed to it" said Ginny breathlessly. Ron smiled  
  
"Excellent, now lets hope it all goes according to plan".  
  
"Dinner!" yelled Mrs Weasley from the garden.  
  
"Ok, and remember, not a word to Harry" said Hermione, Ron rolled his eyes when she wasn't looking, but managed to refrain from making any remarks.  
  
Mrs Weasley had outdone herself; there was a table big enough for the Weasley's, minus Percy, Bill and Charlie as they weren't there, Hermione and Harry. There was a huge chicken and gammon pie with new potatoes and salad. There were enchanted candles hovering above the table, each with a different coloured flame.  
  
Harry was seated at one end. Ron, Hermione and Ginny went to join him. After they were all seated they began, even Harry managed to join in the conversations- to an extent, whenever the topic of conversation went remotely near Sirius he would become suddenly quiet and distant.  
  
When the main course was finally finished, Mrs Weasley brought out a huge dish of homemade strawberry ice cream.  
  
"Well", yawned Hermione "I think I'm going to turn in, I'm pretty tired"  
  
"Me too", said Ron, "Coming Harry?" Harry nodded.  
  
"Thank you, Mrs Weasley, it was excellent" said Harry before following Ron, Ginny nodded in agreement. They all entered the house and at the top of the stairs, Harry and Ron turned left while the Girls turned.  
  
"'Night" said Harry.  
  
"Yeah, G'night" said Ron  
  
"'N.Night" said Ginny attempting to stifle a yawn and failing. Hermione nodded, too tired to do anything else.  
  
Harry and Ron changed in silence before getting into their beds.  
  
"Night, mate."  
  
"Night, Ron" and without another word they both fell asleep.  
  
'--- Harry's Dream --- '  
  
- Harry ran down the corridor, he instinctively knew which door it was, plus he could hear malicious laughter coming from behind it.  
  
He reached it and tried the handle, it was locked! He threw his weight against it and to his relief it opened.  
  
He instantly froze with horror. Staring back at him out of the dimly lit room, littered with all sorts of strange things were the, cold, cruel, hard eyes of none other then Lord Voldemort.  
  
Voldemort laughed even harder and more maliciously.  
  
Harry's brain screamed at him 'RUN!' but he couldn't, his legs just wouldn't move. Suddenly out of the shadows stepped about twenty Deatheaters.  
  
Voldemort raised his wand and said in a voice filled with evil and hate  
  
"Avada Kedavra"  
  
Then out of nowhere stepped Sirius, Harry saw Voldemort's curse hit him square in the chest.  
  
He saw Sirius's face twist with shock and pain.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Screamed Harry, his voice sounded distant, as though he was yelling from the other side of the room.  
  
He saw him fall through the veil and when he looked up it was not Voldemort's face that looked back at him but Bellatrix Lestrange's, Her eyes dancing with cruel merriment and laughter.  
  
Then she levelled her wand at Harry's chest; there was nowhere to run, he was doomed. -  
  
"AAAAAAAARRRRRRGH"  
  
"Harry, Harry!" Ron was beside Harry's bed looking extremely scared. Harry sat up shaking; he was covered in sweat and breathing heavily.  
  
At that point Mrs Weasley, Mr Weasley, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George burst into Ron's room.  
  
"Harry! What's wrong?" asked Mrs Weasley extremely worried.  
  
"Nothing, just a nightmare, I'm ok" Harry mumbled, embarrassed to have woken the whole household.  
  
Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione and Ron were all looking scared.  
  
"Come on, up you get dear". Obediently Harry got up and followed Mrs Weasley down into the kitchen.  
  
Mrs Weasley sat Harry down at the table before starting to make everyone a cup of tea.  
  
"Do you want to tell us what it was about?" asked Mr Weasley gently. Mrs Weasley made a disapproving noise but didn't say anything.  
  
"Yes" said Harry, thinking that it would make him feel better if he did. Mrs Weasley put a cup of tea in front of him and he took a long drink before starting. He felt better after doing so.  
  
He began to tell them his nightmare. After he had finished Hermione and Ginny looked even more scared. Mrs Weasley just reached over to him and hugged him. In a strange way Harry was glad he had that nightmare, he had been able to see Sirius.  
  
Mr Weasley looked at his watch.  
  
"Its three forty-two, I think we should go back to sleep".  
  
"Yes, but first I want to give Harry this potion for dreamless sleep". Mr Weasley nodded and everyone apart from Harry turned and climbed up the stairs.  
  
Instead of getting him his potion, she sat down opposite him.  
  
"Harry, Sirius was a great man, and I know we didn't always get on but I respected him. He didn't like being cooped up; he wanted to do something for the Order. He loved you dearly. That's why he gave his life for you."  
  
Harry nodded. He still couldn't accept it though; the guilt was still there.  
  
"Now, off to bed." It was only until he was in bed that Harry realised she hadn't given him any potion.  
  
The days before Harry's birthday were very eventful, but difficult because everything had to be done without Harry realisation that something was going on, so, as much as she would have liked to Mrs Weasley couldn't put up any decorations. To get presents each person had to sneak off very early in the morning with Mr Weasley.  
  
Eventually the night before Harry's birthday arrived. Using Harry's nightmare as an excuse, Mrs Weasley gave Harry a potion for dreamless sleep.  
  
Harry woke up the next morning and looked at his watch nine-thirty! He immediately jumped up and got dressed. He looked at Ron's bed, Ron wasn't in it.  
  
He went downstairs and then:  
  
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRY!" Everyone apart from Percy was standing in front of the table beaming at him. He couldn't help but beam back. They all came forwards.  
  
"Happy birthday, mate" said Ron grinning at him.  
  
"Happy birthday, Harry" said Hermione. Everyone came up and said happy birthday to him. Then before he could say anything.  
  
"Surprise" said a quiet voice from behind him, Harry recognised that voice but he could hardly believe it. He whirled round.  
  
"Cho!" he breathed in disbelief.  
  
"Yeah" she said softly. Their faces were inches apart, everyone and everything ceased to exist.  
  
"I'm sorry, Harry, about last term" They had moved closer, their faces almost touching.  
  
"Me too" he said quietly.  
  
"I dumped Michael", she said, their lips brushing with every word, "anyway", Cho closed her eyes, "I always liked you better". At that point they released themselves to their passions. Harry never wanted the kiss to end, he loved Cho with all his heart and he knew she loved him in the same way.  
  
Eventually, they broke apart and opened their eyes, they looked at each other's face and smiled gently. As if coming out of a blissful dream they became aware of the entire Weasley family watching them, Harry and Chos' reaction had been nothing like what they had expected.  
  
A/N Hope that chapter was ok, I've tried to make them longer. I haven't been able to update lately because I've been really busy. Please R&R. I will try to update every three days or so, depending on how much work my teachers give me!! Thanks to my reviewers. Keep reading, 'cos I'll keep writing!  
  
Fireboy. 


	5. Harry's Birthday

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except from the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark  
  
Chapter 5: Harry's Birthday.  
  
Harry and Cho blushed but did not let go of each other's hand.  
  
"Harry!" exclaimed Ron in an awed voice; Hermione immediately stepped on his foot. For a few minutes nobody spoke until Mr Weasley cleared his throat,  
  
"Well, um, shall we continue?" relieved to have directed the attention away from Harry and Cho, everyone started talking at once, in the confusion that followed, Harry, Ron, Cho, Ginny and Hermione all sneaked outside. They went round in to the garden and sat down Cho sat on Harry's lap and rested her head in the crook of his neck.  
  
"How come you're here?" Harry asked Cho, "not that I don't want you to be, it's just unexpected." Cho smiled,  
  
"It was Ginny's idea, ask her".  
  
"Well, Cho and I have friends for a while now, since the DA began, and we were writing to each other before you came and when Hermione, Ron and I saw how unhappy you were we decided to ask Cho to come over for your birthday, because she also knows what it is like to lose a loved one and we thought she might be able to cheer you up." Harry nodded this all made sense to him now.  
  
"The other reason was, well, I think you know the other reason why", Harry and Cho both blushed, "and having her over might cheer you up".  
  
"But, your greeting was not quite what we had expected" Ron added, Harry and Cho both blushed even more at that. Ron, Hermione and Ginny all laughed at their faces.  
  
"What did you expect?" Asked Harry  
  
"Well, a verbal greeting, not a physical one!"  
  
"How long are you staying for?" Harry asked Cho  
  
"Rest of the summer" Cho replied  
  
"That's good," said Harry planting a swift kiss on her cheek.  
  
They sat there talking for another ten minutes before Mrs Weasley called them in. They all stood up and walked into the house. They walked into the Weasley's living room where there was a mound of presents for Harry. Harry sat down on a sofa with Cho next to him. Harry reached out and picked up the first present, it was from Hermione, it felt like a book or two, then again, it was from Hermione, so what did he expect? He opened it and two books fell onto his lap. He read the title of the first one 'Curses and Counter Curses', the second one was entitled 'A Guide to Becoming an Auror'  
  
"Wow, Hermione, these will definitely come in useful" Hermione smiled. Harry took Ron's present from the pile, inside was a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and a box of Chocolate Frogs.  
  
"Cheers, Ron" Ron grinned at him. Next Harry took Fred and George's present, a little apprehensively he opened it, inside was a box of Weasley's Wildfire Whizzbangs and a Skiving Snackbox and a dragonhide jacket. However to his relief nothing exploded or jumped out at him. He must have breathed a sigh of relief because Fred and George immediately put on mock hurt expressions.  
  
"He doesn't trust us," said George in an upset voice.  
  
"He thinks we are evil little pranksters who are always playing jokes and causing trouble," said Fred in an identical voice.  
  
"But you are" pointed out Ginny  
  
"Oh yeah" said George as if he had only just remembered.  
  
"Anyway, Harry. Are they ok?" asked Fred dropping the hurt voice.  
  
"They're excellent", said Harry as he held up the jacket, admiring it, it was a greenish colour with a hint of grey.  
  
"The hide is from a Hungarian Horntail" George told him Harry laughed.  
  
Harry picked up Mr and Mrs Weasley's present next. He opened it and out spilled a beautiful emerald green cloak. Before Harry could say anything Mrs Weasley spoke  
  
"That cloak will keep you at the most comfortable temperature all year round, so in winter it will keep you warm and in summer it will keep you cool".  
  
"Thanks very much. That will definitely be helpful".  
  
Charlie gave Harry a book on quidditch moves and flying tips.  
  
"Not that you need it" he said winking at Harry.  
  
Bill gave him a book of various dragons and working models of a Hungarian Horntail, Norwegian Ridgeback and Chinese Fireball.  
  
Ginny gave Harry a bag of Zonko's tricks. When the Weasley's had finished giving Harry his presents Cho leaned over and whispered to him  
  
"I'll give you mine later". Harry nodded.  
  
After all the presents were opened, Mrs Weasley brought in a huge birthday cake in the shape of a snitch. They all took a piece of cake and some butterbeer that Mrs Weasley had bought. After about ten minutes when everyone was standing around talking, Cho grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him outside. When they were out of view of the house, Cho took something out of her pocket. It was a thin silver chain with half a heart attached and 'Harry' written on it.  
  
"It's beautiful," said Harry, and he meant it.  
  
"Yes, but that's not all" and from round her neck she took an identical silver chain with the other half of the heart attached and 'Cho' written on it. She moved closer to him and placed her half of the heart next to his, they fitted perfectly.  
  
"The heart is whole, when we are together." Harry pointed out. Cho laughed.  
  
"Why d'you think I bought it? I am in Ravenclaw you know!"  
  
"Can't see why, though" said Harry teasingly. Cho shoved him in mock outrage. Harry laughed and ran away from her, after about a minute Cho caught up with him and pushed him over, Harry pulled her down with him. She landed on top of him and grinned.  
  
"You're always looking up to me aren't you?"  
  
"You wish" muttered Harry. They looked into each others eyes for a minute then Cho leaned in, then  
  
"Alright pile up!" yelled Fred; a second later Harry felt three extra weights on him. "Get off of me!" groaned Harry from the bottom of the pile  
  
"Sorry, no can do" said Fred,  
  
"Why not?" asked Harry  
  
"I've got George on top of me"  
  
"George, get off"  
  
"Can't Harry"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Got Ron on top of me" said George in a matter of fact tone.  
  
"Ron get off" Ron got off laughing. Everyone else got off eventually Harry was able to stand up, nursing a sore arm where Cho's elbow had been digging into it,  
  
"Mum said come inside" said Fred so Harry and Cho followed Ron, Fred and George into the house. Harry looked at his watch it read twelve o'clock. They entered the house and saw that Mrs Weasley was not there, so they sat down at the table Cho opposite Harry and Ron sitting at the head of the table, Fred and George went to find their mother.  
  
All of a sudden for no apparent reason Harry realised that Sirius was dead and all the joy he had felt that it was his birthday evaporated like water.  
  
Cho watched him horrified, she saw his face pale, he slumped forward and put his head in his hands, Ron stood up immediately but Cho leapt up and ran round the table towards Harry and knelt down in front of him and looked into his eyes.  
  
"Harry!" she said urgently with anxiety and fear in her voice, "Harry!" Harry turned his face away from her; Cho grabbed his face with her hands and held it in front of her. He dropped his gaze and refused to look at her, She thrust her face towards his and kissed him hard, biting down firmly on his lip, tasting the saltiness of blood in her mouth. She drew away and looked into his eyes, he looked up at her, fear, sadness and despair in his eyes, Cho felt her eyes water.  
  
"Harry, you will move on, don't forget him, forget him dying. I thought I would never move on from Cedric, but I have, Sirius wouldn't want you to give up like this, he would want you to move on, he wanted you to have a life, that's why he gave his own" It seemed like Harry looked into her eyes for the first time, she saw life return to them.  
  
"You're right," He said in a hoarse voice, "Thank you."  
  
"That's all right," she smiled, "I'm glad you're alright" Cho leaned in again and their lips met in a gentle kiss. They broke apart and looked at each other Cho sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder Harry put his arm round her waist..  
  
Mrs Weasley smiled; she had entered with Fred, George, Hermione and Ginny at the point where Cho and Ron had both jumped to their feet. She had held up her hand to stop them doing or saying anything although it took all of her self-control to stop herself from doing something. The first kiss had been desperate but the second had been reassuring as if to say `I'll always be here for you, I will never leave you when you need me most`. She felt that it was time to make their presence known. She stepped into the room.  
  
"Harry, we will always be here if you need us." She said.  
  
"Yeah, mate, we don't plan on deserting you anytime soon." Said Fred  
  
"After all, you gave us that gold,"  
  
"And we need you to be here in case we need some more"  
  
"Admittedly that's not likely, but you know, just in case," George grinned and winked at him.  
  
Mrs Weasley looked slightly displeased as this conversation went on but she joined in the laughter at the end. Ron looked thoughtful for a moment,  
  
"How many times have I told you what Cho has just told you and you never listened to me, how come you listened to her?" He said in indignation. Hermione rolled her eyes.  
  
"Because you're not worth listening to" said Fred in a matter-of-fact voice as if he was commenting on the weather.  
  
Everyone apart from Ron laughed. Just then, five large, barn owls swooped in through the open door and dropped four letters onto the table, each one had the Hogwarts crest on the front. Mrs Weasley picked them up and gave them to the owners. They contained their booklists.  
  
"Wonder who the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is" said Ron,  
  
"It has got to be someone who knows the spells and can use them really well" said Hermione. Harry nodded in agreement. Cho looked thoughtful,  
  
"The letters a bit early though, they usually come about a week before we go back to school." Ron just shrugged.  
  
"I can't see anything wrong with that."  
  
"I was just wondering." "Where are "Bill, Dad and Charlie?" asked George  
"They had things to do for the Order."  
  
For the remainder of the afternoon they played quidditch, while Hermione helped Mrs Weasley in the kitchen preparing dinner. At seven o'clock Hermione came out to tell them that dinner was ready. They headed to the garden after putting their brooms away. They had an excellent meal of roast chicken followed by a huge chocolate cake.  
  
By time they had finished eating it was close to ten o'clock and everyone was feeling tired after such an eventful day. So after helping Mrs Weasley tidy up they all went up to bed. On the landing Harry kissed Cho goodnight and headed into Ron's room, while she went into Ginny's room with Hermione and Ginny. Harry lay down on his bed and fell asleep immediately.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH"  
  
Harry woke up blinded by pain, his head was splitting open he was sure of it, the pain in his scar was so great, he thought he was dying. He rolled off his camp bed onto his hands and knees and vomited consecutively for two minutes, the pain wasn't easing. He was shaking violently, he felt himself lose consciousness, and he struggled to hold on. Gradually, the pained lessened,  
  
"Harry!" He still couldn't focus properly, he was still losing consciousness.  
  
"Wake up Harry!" Eventually he regained full perception. Harry spoke  
before any of them could, he had to, he was still very weak.  
  
"Something really good has happened for him," No-one needed to ask  
whom 'him` was. "Even better than the Azkaban breakout." Harry stood  
up, he looked at them. Fear written into each one of their faces.  
  
"This is the best thing that has happened to him for sixteen years" No-  
one knew what to say or do, Ron looked terrified, Hermione looked as  
if she was going to faint. Ginny and Cho were crying  
  
Mrs Weasley waved her wand.  
  
"Scourgify" everything was cleaned up. At that point Cho threw herself  
onto Harry even though he was soaked in sweat.  
  
She was crying uncontrollably. Harry held her in his arms.  
  
"I was so scared."  
  
"Shh, it's all right, I'm fine now."  
  
"Harry, are you sure you're ok, you don't want anything?" asked Mrs  
Weasley  
  
"Yeah, I'm ok"  
  
"I guess we'll find out tomorrow what has happened." Said George  
grimly. Everyone turned and went into their different rooms. Cho and  
Harry went out into the corridor, and sat with their backs to the  
wall, Cho put her head on Harry's shoulder; he put his arm round her  
waist.  
  
"I was so scared, you were screaming and shaking."  
  
"Don't worry, it has happened before. Never that bad but it has happened"  
  
"Are you scared?" asked Cho  
  
"Of what?"  
  
"Everything, You-Know-Who, what ever has happened tonight" Harry laughed quietly.  
  
"Of course, we all are. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't stand up to him."  
  
"You're right" Cho was silent for a few minutes, then Harry realised she had gone to sleep. He smiled and, not wanting to wake her by moving her back into Ginny's room he closed his eyes and went to sleep.  
Hermione woke up at seven thirty, knowing she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, she decided to get up, she put on her dressing gown and left Ginny's room. To her surprise, she saw two figures sitting, asleep, against the wall. She realised it was Harry and Cho.  
  
Harry woke up and looked at Cho, he kissed her forehead. He looked straight ahead and saw Hermione sitting opposite him smiling.  
  
"Hey" he greeted, whispering.  
  
"Hi" she whispered back.  
  
"How long have you been up?"  
  
"Five minutes"  
  
"Cool"  
  
"Are you alright this morning?"  
  
"Still a bit shaken, but on the whole I'm ok."  
  
"I'm glad"  
  
"Just don't give up, Sirius sacrificed himself so you could continue living."  
  
"I won't"  
  
"I know."  
  
"See you, Harry"  
  
"See you" Harry closed his eyes. Two minutes later he heard a scream ring out from downstairs. Cho woke up suddenly; Harry jumped up and ran downstairs. Hermione was shaking The Daily Prophet in her hands. She held it out to Harry, not looking at him. A feeling of terror flooded into him. Dreading to look at what it was he took the paper and looked at the heading.  
  
"Nooo, this can't be happening" he moaned in big, bold letters was the heading,  
  
DEMENTORS JOIN YOU-KNOW-WHO, PRISONERS FREE FROM AZKABAN  
  
Harry read on.  
  
Last night the Dementors left Azkaban to join You-Know-Who, all the prisoners are free and are believed to be heading for You-Know-Who aswell as the Dementors  
  
Everyone else arrived downstairs, without a word Harry handed the paper to Mrs Weasley. She looked at it horrified. Just then a large tawny owl flew through the window it perched on the window in front of Mrs Weasley, She took the letter and read it.  
  
--Molly--  
  
You are not safe at the burrow, please come to the Headquarters. Arthur is already here.  
  
--Albus--  
  
She read the letter out loud.  
  
"Go up and pack, we have to leave in fifteen minutes." Without a word everyone turned and ran upstairs.  
  
A/N Another chapter done, sorry I have not uploaded for ages, first I was ill, and then my computer wasn't working properly, but now that I have my laptop back I can use that, I got it confiscated, I hate teachers! I am really sorry. Keep reading and reviewing. I'll keep writing. Hope you are enjoying this, please let me know anything that can make it better. Thanks to all my reviewers so far.  
  
Fireboy.  
  
. 


	6. Return to the House of Black

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark  
  
Chapter 6: Return to the House of Black  
  
Harry followed Ron into his room, what did Dumbledore mean they weren't safe, did he expect them to be attacked? Hurriedly he stuffed all his things in his trunk, Ron was sweating and muttering worriedly, Harry grabbed Hedwig's cage, put it on top of his trunk and carried them downstairs, Ron following a moment later. Five minutes later everyone was in the kitchen, Hermione and Ginny looked scared, Fred and Georges' normally laughing faces looked serious. Cho clung tight to Harry who felt sick. Mrs Weasley's usually cheerful face was taught with anxiety. Ron was sweating and looking worried. Mrs Weasley quickly grabbed the pot of floo powder from the fireplace. She handed it to Fred who, after a cry of 'Twelve Grimmauld Place' disappeared into the flames closely followed by George, then Ron, Ginny, and Hermione.  
  
"Are you alright, Harry?" asked Mrs Weasley. Harry nodded untruthfully; it was hurting, he was going back to the place where Sirius had been last time he had a proper conversation with him. It took a conscious effort stepping up to the fireplace and taking some floo powder. He opened his mouth but no words came out, he closed it again. He couldn't do it, he couldn't go back there.  
  
Suddenly, he felt someone put their arms around his middle, he turned his head and saw Cho standing there, tears in her eyes.  
  
"You can do it Harry, think of now, think of today, think of me!" she said, Harry nodded. He turned round. He threw the floo powder in the fire and said in a surprisingly strong voice,  
  
"Twelve Grimmauld Place" he stepped into fire and he felt himself spinning. A moment later he stepped out of the fireplace and looking back at him were, Mr Weasley, Tonks, Kingsley, Lupin, Dumbledore, Moody and the other Weasleys and Hermione, just then Cho appeared ignoring everyone else she ran up to Harry and threw her arms round his neck and breathed in his ear.  
  
"You will get over him, I promise. I will always be here if you need me" before kissing him passionately. The broke apart a few seconds later. Everyone apart from Fred, George, Ron, Hermione and Ginny looked surprised.  
  
"Look, Harry, the public displays really have got to stop we know you love Cho, you don't have to prove anything." Remarked George in a mock serious voice causing Harry and Cho to blush deep crimson and everyone else to laugh.  
  
Mrs Weasley's head appeared in the fireplace.  
  
"I'm sending the trunks through now so stand back." Harry suddenly noticed the china ornaments on the side opposite the fireplace,  
  
"Wait!" he called but it was too late, Mrs Weasley's head had disappeared. He stepped ten paces away from the fireplace opposite it. He took out his wand.  
  
He saw the first trunk hurtle towards him.  
  
"Protego" he called out, the trunk hit the spell, stopped dead and hit the floor with a crash, it was too heavy to bounce back, he kicked it out the way. Tonks took out her wand to take over, but Moody pushed her arm down.  
  
"It's good practice for him" he growled, she nodded and lowered her wand. The next trunk flew at him, again he blocked it and moved it out the way. He did this till all the trunks had arrived. Mrs Weasley stepped out of the fireplace.  
  
"That was a good bit of wand work, Potter." Praised Moody. Harry grinned.  
  
"Hope you taught it to the DA" said Lupin  
  
"How do you know about the DA?" asked Harry.  
  
"Sirius told us," Tonks then realised what she had just said and clapped her hand to her mouth looking horrified, "Sorry!" she whispered.  
  
"Don't be sorry, I have to get over him and the only way I will is if I accept that he is dead and I can't do that by pretending that he never existed." Said Harry. Everyone looked at him shocked when he had finished, apart from Dumbledore and Cho who looked at him with distinct pride. Mrs Weasley changed the subject.  
  
"Take your trunks up into the rooms you were in last time, Cho, dear, just follow Hermione." She said. Tonks charmed the trunks to follow their owners. Harry and Ron put their trunks in their room and preceded back downstairs.  
  
"The house looks much better now that it has been cleaned, doesn't it?" remarked Ron.  
  
"Yeah, much more habitable." Replied Harry. They arrived at the bottom of the stairs where Mrs Weasley immediately ushered them into the dining room for a meeting. Five minutes later everyone was sat down with Dumbledore at the head of the table.  
  
"Now, with these Dementors no longer under ministry service we are all going to have to be more careful. Harry, you are under strict orders not to go anywhere without a guard of at least five of the Order. When we get back to school things will be different but until then you will obey." Dumbledore's normally calm voice was hard, showing that he was serious. Harry nodded, he didn't like it, it would restrict his freedom.  
  
"Next, you are to continue leglimency with Professor Snape." This, Harry could not stop himself protesting.  
  
"Why can't you teach me?"  
  
"I, Harry, am too busy, I would like to teach you but I can't." Harry had no option but to nod in unwilling agreement.  
  
"Now, Harry, you may go" Harry was inclined to argue but thought better of it and left without a word. When Dumbledore was sure Harry was out of earshot he turned to Ron, Hermione, Cho and Ginny.  
  
"Keep an eye on Harry, make sure he doesn't do anything reckless, make sure he is safe at all times. You too, may leave."  
  
Once out they went up to Ron's room where Harry was lying on his bed. Cho sat down next to him, Hermione and Ron sat on his bed and Ginny sat on the floor.  
  
"Apparently, mate, we're to keep an eye on you and not let you do anything stupid." Hermione rolled her eyes, and said in that sickeningly sweet voice that Dolores Umbridge used when she was about to get very angry with someone.  
  
"Ron, why do you think that Professor Dumbledore asked Harry to leave before he said that to us"  
  
"Err. Because he didn't want Harry to know?"  
  
"Exactly," Hermione said, still in that same sickeningly sweet voice, "AND NOW YOU HAVE JUST GONE AND TOLD HIM YOU MORON!" she shouted, dropping the sweet voice. Ron and Hermione immediately started arguing, Harry, Cho and Ginny were laughing. When Ron and Hermione realised this they stopped arguing and turned on Harry and the other two.  
  
"What are you laughing at?" demanded Ron,  
  
"Nothing," said Harry a sly grin on his face, "Except that you fight like a married couple."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron demanded again.  
  
"It means," Hermione said, glaring at Harry, "he thinks we should get married!"  
  
"What?! No!.Urgh, Harry how could you say that? I would never marry Hermione!" Hermione turned on him angrily.  
  
"Ronald Weasley! what are you implying?"  
  
"Nothing, nothing!" said Ron hastily, desperately trying to cover his tracks, "It's just that you're my best friend, you don't marry you're best friend!" Harry, Ginny and Cho just laughed harder. Ron and Hermione stopped arguing and silently moved towards Harry, who had his eyes closed and tears of laughter rolling down his face. Hermione held up three fingers, she put one down, then another and finally the last one. Ron jumped on Harry and started pummelling him playfully while Hermione was tickling mercilessly,  
  
"Hey no fair," he said through tears of laughter, "how come you pick on me?"  
  
"Because you, Mr Potter, were the one that made that snide remark about Ron and I" said Hermione.  
  
"Ok, ok, I give in"  
  
"Don't tell me that the great Harry Potter is giving in to us!" said Ron in a mock surprised voice."  
  
"You got it, now get off me." When Ron and Hermione had got off of him Harry turned to Cho in mock anger,  
  
"How come you didn't help me?" Cho shrugged non-commitedly,  
  
"It was more fun watching." At this point Fred and George appeared with two pops.  
  
"Were in, Dumbledore let us in." said Fred.  
  
"In what?" asked Ron, Fred rolled his eyes.  
  
"The fridge," said George sarcastically,  
  
"The Order, you idiot," said Fred  
  
"Mum's not too happy about it though," said George casually.  
  
"Why not?" asked Hermione.  
  
"Oh you know," George imitated his mothers voice, "You've got your whole lives ahead of you, what happens if you get killed?" he stopped imitating her voice, "she doesn't understand that we're prepared to die if we have to."  
  
"Why aren't you down there now?" asked Ron.  
  
"Meetings finished," said Fred shortly. They all sat up there talking until Mrs Weasley called them down for dinner.  
  
They went downstairs and into the dining room, Dumbledore had left so only Moody, Tonks, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Kingsley and Lupin. Mrs Weasley had cooked a gammon and chicken pie with new potatoes and carrots.  
  
They all sat down at the table and started eating. Half an hour later, when the first course was finished, Molly left and returned with a huge apple pie and a jug of cream. Three helpings later, Harry sat back in his chair.  
  
"We have to go to Diagon alley soon." Said Mrs Weasley.  
  
"When?" asked Cho  
  
"In about two days time," Cho nodded. Harry, Ron, Hermione Cho and Ginny decided to go to bed, so they climbed the stairs and went into their separate rooms; on the landing Cho stopped Harry before he went into his room,  
  
"Harry I've been meaning to ask, what is the Order?"  
  
"It's the Order of the Phoenix, it was founded by Dumbledore the first time Voldemort rose to power, it's a group of people who fight Voldemort."  
  
"Oh, and what is this place?"  
  
"It's the House of Black, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, it has belonged to the Black family for centuries and although the Blacks have always been supporters of Voldemort and his ideas, it belonged to my Godfather, Sirius, and he hated his family and Voldemort, that's why he ran away at sixteen and went to live with my dad, so he gave it to Dumbledore to use as the headquarters for the Order before he was killed."  
  
"Could I join the Order?"  
  
"No Dumbledore wouldn't let you until you have finished school."  
  
"Oh, ok, well, goodnight Harry." Cho kissed him on the cheek.  
  
"Night." Harry turned and walked into Ron's room. Ron was snoring loudly. Harry changed and crawled into bed, not expecting to sleep, not only because of Ron's snoring, but he was in the House of Black, Sirius' house, and with that thought exhaustion overwhelmed sadness and Harry fell in to a deep sleep.  
  
He was woken suddenly by blood curdling scream from downstairs,  
  
"VILE HALF BLOODS AND MUDBLOODS, HOW DARE YOU INFECT THE HOUSE OF MY FOREBEARS, SCUM OF THE EARTH! YOU POISON THE HOUSE OF BLACK!"  
  
"TONKS!" came Mrs Weasley's angry voice,  
  
"Sorry, I didn't mean to!" came Tonks' voice as well; Harry stepped outside of his bedroom in his pyjamas and dressing gown. Cho was already standing there,  
  
"What is that?" She shouted above the noise coming from downstairs  
  
"The portrait of Sirius' Mum, she hates everyone apart from purebloods, she strongly supported Voldemort's ideas but she was never a Death Eater, some of her children are, and other Blacks are."  
  
"Ah, right" Mrs Weasley and whoever else was helping her seemed to have got the portrait under control because there was no more shouting coming from downstairs.  
  
"I'm glad that's sorted," said Ron who had just walked out onto the landing and was now standing next to Harry and Cho. They walked downstairs.  
  
"How'd that happen?" Ron asked Mrs Weasley.  
  
"Tonks tripped over the umbrella stand and caught the curtain."  
  
"Oh, ok." Mrs Weasley returned to the kitchen, Harry, Ron and Cho went and sat down at the dining room table. Mrs Weasley brought out a huge plate stacked with bacon, sausages, eggs and toast. She placed it down on the table and Ron immediately grabbed everything and started gorging himself. Harry and Cho burst out laughing at the sight of Ron stuffing himself. Mrs Weasley entered to see what was so funny but she looked disgusted when she saw Ron.  
  
"Ronald Weasley!"  
Ron looked up and his expression turned to horror when he saw who it was. He slowly put his fork, which was laden with bacon, sausage and egg, down. He swallowed his mouthful with great difficulty,  
  
"Mum!" He said in a false cheery voice.  
  
"You will not, Ronald Weasley, eat with such disgusting manners." Ron nodded humbly, but as soon as his mother's back was turned he ate with the same gusto that he had before. When Harry and Cho had finished they got up and left. They passed Ginny and Hermione on the stairs.  
  
"I heavily advise, that you do not go in the dining room," said Harry to them.  
  
"Why not?" asked Ginny curiously, Harry just shook his head indicating he was not going to answer and walked off with Cho. Hermione just shrugged and she and Ginny continued into the dining room. A second later two shrieks could be heard throughout the house. Then,  
  
"Ron! You are disgusting!" came Hermione's voice. Followed by,  
  
"You absolute pig!" Ginny yelled. Harry ran to the top of the stairs and saw Ron run out of the dining closely followed by Hermione and Ginny who both looked like they wanted to murder him. Ron darted up the stairs and into his room where he slammed the door behind him. By the sounds coming from it, Harry guessed that Ron was barricading himself in. Hermione and Ginny ran up the stairs and threw themselves against the door,  
  
"Open up now!" yelled Ginny.  
  
"Not likely!" Ron yelled back.  
  
"I did warn you not to go in there." Said Harry calmly and quietly.  
  
"Yeah, but you didn't tell us what he was doing." Said Hermione angrily. Cho grabbed Harry by the arm and indicated with her head that they should get out of there. Harry nodded and they ran downstairs laughing. Harry saw Lupin standing at the bottom of the stairs.  
  
"Hello, Remus." Greeted Harry. Lupin smiled.  
  
"Hello, Harry."  
  
"How are you?"  
  
"Not bad, and you?" replied Lupin  
  
"Good thanks, why are you here?" asked Harry.  
  
"Oh, just got stuff to do for the Order."  
  
"Ok, see you later then." After having a look round, they decided to go back up and see how Ron was doing against the combined wrath of Hermione and Ginny. They walked up the stairs and saw Fred and George laughing at Hermione and Ginny who were still trying to get to Ron.  
  
"They still trying to murder him then?" asked Cho.  
  
"Yeah," said Fred through snorts of laughter, "But every time they say something Ron just yells something like 'I'm not coming out' it's quite funny actually, I don't think Hermione and Ginny have realised that they have spent half an hour trying to get to him and he still hasn't moved."  
  
"Ron, you pig, if you don't come out then when I get to you I will hex you from here to next month!" threatened Hermione.  
  
"If I don't come out then you can't hex me, so there is no way I am coming out." Retorted Ron. Harry grinned as an idea came to him. He tapped Hermione on the shoulder and when she turned round he whispered his idea to her. Hermione grinned and told Ginny the idea. Harry went downstairs very quietly. He waited for a few seconds before climbing the stairs again noisily. Hermione winked at him before shrieking,  
  
"Harry, what happened to you?" in a horrified voice.  
  
"Harry!" Ginny screamed out loud. Ron yelped in a frightened voice.  
  
"Hold on, mate, I'm coming" the sounds of furniture being moved hurriedly came from inside the room. The door was flung opened and Ron stood there looking worried and scared. When he saw that Harry was perfectly fine and was grinning broadly he realised what was going on and slammed the door shut, however Ginny and Hermione had thrown their weight against it and Ron couldn't close it. Hermione and Ginny chased him towards his bed. He dived onto it and they jumped onto him and started hitting him.  
  
"When they're done with me, I swear I will kill you Potter!" Ron managed to gasp out.  
  
"If you can even move." Said Harry in between fits of laughter. Everyone apart from Hermione, Ginny and Ron was rolling around on the floor laughing. Mrs Weasley came in to see what all the noise was about.  
  
"Hermione, Ginny what is going on?" she snapped. Hermione and Ginny sprang off Ron, their faces a picture of innocence.  
  
"I expected better from both of you, especially you Hermione." They both looked at the ground and mumbled an apology. Ron was lying on the bed looking smug.  
  
"What had you done to provoke them?" Mrs Weasley snapped at him, Ron's smug look vanished in an instance.  
  
"Nothing!" he protested.  
  
"He was shovelling his food down at a grotesque rate when we entered the dining room to have breakfast," said Ginny. Mrs Weasley turned on Ron again.  
  
"I thought I had warned you about that!" Ron's mouth opened and closed stupidly. When Mrs Weasley realised that he had nothing to say for himself she said to him,  
  
"I don't want to have to tell you to behave, and that goes for all of you" turning round to look at all of them and with that she left. Ron turned and glared at Harry.  
  
"You are so dead, Potter!" Harry smirked at him.  
  
"You heard what your mother said, no misbehaving!" Ron looked sulky knowing he had been defeated. Cho changed the subject, and they spent the rest of the morning talking about various things. Mrs Weasley brought up a huge plate of sandwiches, and they each took one and continued talking, a thought suddenly struck Harry,  
  
"Hey, has anyone seen Kreacher?" Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George all shook their heads.  
  
"Who's Kreacher?" asked Cho.  
  
"The house-elf. He was the cause of Sirius' death." Harry went on to explain how Kreacher had tricked Harry thus causing Sirius to go to the Department of Mysteries. Harry and everyone went downstairs. They saw Moody and Lupin talking.  
  
"Where's Kreacher?" asked Harry immediately. Lupin and Moody smiled grimly.  
  
"He's dead," said Lupin  
  
"Dead?" asked Harry.  
  
"We killed him," Said Moody, "He tricked us, causing Sirius to lose his life, we couldn't free him, he knew too much so we killed him." Instead of feeling upset Harry felt grimly pleased, Kreacher had, effectively killed Sirius.  
  
"But that's not right!" shrieked Hermione horrified.  
  
"Yes it is!" Harry snapped at her viciously, "He killed Sirius! And you're still defending him!"  
  
"He didn't know what he was doing." Said Hermione meekly.  
  
"HE KNEW PERFECTLY WELL WHAT HE WAS DOING!" Harry roared at her, everyone shrunk back from him. There was nothing but fury in eyes. "YOU'RE STILL DEFENDING HIM, HE KILLED MY GODFATHER! SIRIUS WAS THE CLOSEST THING I HAD TO A FATHER, KREACHER KILLED HIM AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS STAND UP FOR HIM!" and without another word Harry turned and stormed off. Hermione was crying. Cho turned to follow Harry but Lupin held out his arm stopping her.  
  
"Maybe you should just leave him for a while." Cho nodded.  
  
"I've never seen Harry that mad." Cho said.  
  
"Me neither" said Ron.  
  
"I think that was the wrong thing to say, Hermione," said Lupin gently. Mrs Weasley came in to find out what out what all the noise was about. She gasped when she saw Hermione, Moody quickly told her what had happened.  
  
"Oh Hermione! That was a silly thing to say, don't you see, if we let Kreacher live then he would just cause more trouble for the Order, we couldn't free him because he knew too much!" She said before giving her a hug.  
  
"But no one cares that it was Kreacher who was the cause of Sirius' death?" Said a cold, hard voice from the stairs. Everyone suddenly looked nervous.  
  
"Yes, but-" began Mrs Weasley.  
  
"ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS THE ORDER, WELL, TO BE BLUNT, I COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT THE ORDER! KREACHER AS GOOD AS KILLED SIRIUS AND IF HE WASN'T ALREADY DEAD THEN I WOULD KILL HIM!" Harry was furious, "IS THAT ALL YOU CARE ABOUT? THE ORDER? YOU DON'T ACTUALLY CARE THAT THE CLOSEST THING TO A FATHER I EVER HAD SINCE MY REAL DAD DIED IS DEAD?"  
  
"Of course we do-" said Mrs Weasley.  
  
"THEN WHY DON'T YOU SHOW IT?" bellowed Harry. Everyone looked terrified, no one answered,  
  
"WELL?" When no one answered again, Harry turned round and walked back upstairs. Again Cho went to follow him, but Lupin stopped her.  
  
"Let me go" Lupin said. He went upstairs and slowly opened the door to Harry's room. Harry was sitting on his bed, his head in his hands, looking exhausted and weak.  
  
"Harry, I know how you feel, Sirius was one of my best friends, but what you have got to remember is that there are more important things in life,"  
  
"It doesn't feel like it." Harry's voice was hoarse and thick with emotion.  
  
"I know, but there is, Sirius died for the Order, he died fighting, he died doing something useful, he died to give you life. He wouldn't want you to feel like you do, he died so you could keep fighting, so you could keep living. He fought for something he believed in and he paid the ultimate price. He knew the risks he was taking, he knew what he was doing but he never gave up. He wouldn't want you to either just because he was killed fighting for what he believed in. He loved you Harry, that's why he was willing to give his life for you."  
  
Harry nodded. He still felt angry but not as angry as he had done five minutes ago.  
  
"Do you want to stay up here or come downstairs?" Lupin asked softly.  
  
"I'll come."  
  
"Ok." Harry and Lupin stood up and walked downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, when everyone had seen them, Hermione moved cautiously towards Harry and when she saw that he wasn't going to object she ran at him and hugged him tight. Harry hugged her back.  
  
"I'm so sorry Harry, I was so stupid!" she said in between sobs.  
  
"That's alright, I'm sorry too."  
  
"You don't have anything to be sorry for!"  
  
"Yeah I have, I shouldn't have lost my temper like that."  
  
"Of course you should, we know how much you miss him." She let go of him and smiled through her tears. Everyone spent the rest of the day talking. At nine o'clock Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Cho decided to go to bed, because they had to get up early to go to Diagon Alley. Harry and the rest climbed the stairs. Harry went into his room with Ron.  
  
"I've never seen you that angry, mate, not even the first time you were here."  
  
"I've never felt that angry" Harry replied.  
  
"It was scary, it was one of the scariest things I have ever seen."  
  
"Count yourself lucky, then."  
  
"No, you were terrifying."  
  
"Well, goodnight" Harry got changed and got into bed. Five minutes later he was asleep, all the emotions of today had overwhelmed him.  
  
A/N Hope you liked it, now a couple of things. One. I am going to start writing longer chapters so it will be longer between updates. If you don't want me to do that let me know in your reviews. Two, sorry for not updating for a while, I have been on an army camp. Three, because I am at a boarding school where teachers dictate your life, when you do this, when you do that, I can't always get chapters written and updated when I want to. I don't plan on stopping writing this fic and if I do I will tell you. Whenever I can I write this fic. Next chapter we return to Hogwarts. Keep reading and reviewing 'cos, like I've said before, I'll keep writing!  
  
Fireboy. 


	7. Diagon Alley and Return to Hogwarts

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 7: Diagon Alley and Return to Hogwarts.  
  
Harry woke early, he saw Mrs Weasley standing over him, shaking him gently.  
  
"Come on, Harry dear, time to get up." Harry sat up, Ron was already awake, he was sitting up looking at Harry, bleary eyed.  
  
"Morning, mate."  
  
"Morning" Harry said stifling a yawn. Harry looked at his watch. It read seven o'clock. Ron yawned loudly. Forcing himself to get up, Harry stumbled around getting some clothes on. He turned round to ask Ron why he wasn't getting up he saw that Ron had lay back down, turned over and had gone to sleep again. Harry laughed. He went over to Ron and poked him hard in the side,  
  
"Oy, get up you lazy git!" When Ron didn't respond, Harry went to the other end of his bed and took hold of Ron's covers and with a ferocious tug pulled them off. Ron sat up quickly.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?" he said angrily. Harry grinned at Ron's angry face,  
  
"Trying to get you to get up!" Ron just grumbled, but got up anyway. After about ten minutes they were both ready. They went downstairs where there was the delicious smell of bacon frying. Harry and Ron sat down at the table and waited for the girls to come downstairs. Five minutes later the three girls arrived downstairs, all three of them blurry eyed and yawning widely.  
  
"Morning beautiful" Harry said to Cho, standing up to give her to give her a kiss.  
  
"Morning" she said. She sat down next to him and took a piece of toast off of his plate. Mrs Weasley came in carrying a huge platter piled high with sausage and bacon.  
  
"We have to leave in about half an hour."  
  
"How are we getting there?" Ron asked her.  
  
"By floo." She disappeared back into the kitchen, they continued eating in silence  
  
"This is my last year at Hogwarts" Cho said sadly. Harry reached over and gave her a quick hug.  
  
"Just make it the best then."  
  
"I can't, the best was last year when I kissed you for the first time." Harry kissed her passionately.  
  
"What have we told you about the public displays?" said George seriously as he and Fred entered the room. Harry broke the kiss and just looked at him. Then he went back to kissing her even more passionately. Ron snorted at the way Harry had ignored George. Eventually, Harry and Cho broke apart.  
  
"Why are you up this early?" asked Ginny  
  
"We're coming as well," said Fred  
  
"Why are you coming? You're not at Hogwarts anymore" asked Hermione  
  
"We're going back to run the joke shop." Said George  
  
"Why don't you just apparate?" asked Ginny  
  
"We had to get up this early anyway, because we have to be there early to open up and everything, so we might as well just come with you." Explained George. Ten minutes later everyone was ready to go to Diagon Alley. They stood in front of the fireplace. Mrs Weasley sent them in one by one. When Mrs Weasley held the pot of floo powder out to him, Harry took a bit and threw it into the fire yelling,  
  
"Diagon Alley" He felt himself spinning, he landed in a fireplace in one of the shops in Diagon Alley. He left the shop and saw, Ron, Hermione, Cho and Ginny already standing there.  
  
"Where are Fred and George?" asked Harry, the twins had gone after Ron and Hermione.  
  
"They've already gone to their shop," said Ron. Just then Mrs Weasley arrived.  
  
"Right, what do people need to get?" she asked.  
  
"I need a new set of robes." Said Harry.  
  
"Just what's on my list." Said Cho. Hermione and Ginny nodded in agreement.  
  
"I need to stock up on potions ingredients," said Ron  
  
"Oh yeah, I need to do that as well." Said Harry.  
  
"Harry, Ron, you go off and get the ingredients you need, give me your booklists, I'll go get them with the girls." Harry and Ron nodded, Mrs Weasley gave Ron some money, and they walked off. They reached the Apothecary. Ron went round gathering the things he needed. Harry tried to remember what he needed. Fellindas root, powdered hawksbay leaves and some more porcupine quills as well as some more of the basic ingredients. He went and paid and waited for Ron.  
  
Ron walked up to him and looked at the shelves.  
  
"Won't be a minute, mate, do you know where the diced basfeld stems are?"  
  
"Yeah, down there, near the porcupine quills."  
  
"Cheers, mate." Ron got the basfeld stems and went and paid.  
  
"C'mon" said Harry as Ron finished paying. They walked out and headed to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.  
  
"Harry!" Ron's voice broke through his thoughts.  
  
"You haven't been listening to a word I've been saying, have you?" Ron said indignantly.  
  
"Sorry" Harry mumbled, he had been thinking about Cho, and when they had kissed under the mistletoe. Ron looked at him curiously.  
  
"You really love her don't you?"  
  
"How did you know I was thinking about her?"  
  
"You blushed when I interrupted your thoughts" Ron said simply.  
  
"With all my heart" said Harry answering Ron's question.  
  
"I know." They walked on in silence. When they reached Madam Malkin's Harry went in while Ron went to look at Quality Quidditch Supplies.  
  
"Hogwarts robes, dear?" asked Madam Malkin.  
  
"Please" replied Harry. He waited while she measured him. Ten minutes later he was ready to go. He paid and walked out of the shop.  
  
"Potter!" spat a voice behind him. Harry turned round calmly and saw Draco Malfoy standing there with Crabbe, Goyle, Theodore Nott and a group of people Harry didn't know, but he guessed they were Slytherins.  
  
"Oh, it's you," said Harry before turning his back on them. Harry felt something brush past him.  
  
"Don't you dare turn your back on me, Potter!" Malfoy had his wand out and had it pointed at Harry. Harry's wand rose as well. Malfoy sneered.  
  
"Think you can take us on alone?"  
  
"He isn't alone" Harry turned round and saw Ron, Dean and Seamus standing there, wands out. Harry saw Neville move away from his grandmother and he too joined them with his wand out. His grandmother stood there watching, Harry couldn't see any emotion on her face.  
  
"Oh look, boys, Potters little friends have come to save him" said Malfoy, his voice filled with sarcasm.  
  
"You're the one that needs saving, Malfoy" Said Harry.  
  
"How's your precious Godfather, Potter? Sneered Malfoy. By now a considerable crowed had gathered round watching.  
  
"How's your precious father, Malfoy?" Harry sneered back.  
  
"Free now." said Malfoy.  
  
"Not for long, and everyone still knows that he's a scumbag and, you know what they say, like father like son."  
  
"Watch it Potter" said Malfoy, hate in his voice  
  
"No." said Harry shortly. Malfoy sent a curse at Harry. With reflexes born of quidditch training, Harry had a shield charm up a millisecond after Malfoy sent the curse at him. The curse bounced off the shield charm and hit Malfoy on the arm, a large gash appearing there. Malfoy let out a yell; Nott raised his wand and pointed it at Harry. He opened his mouth to send out a curse but Neville was faster.  
  
"Petrificus Totalus" yelled Neville sending the body binding curse at Nott. Nott fell down, with a look of intense surprise on his face. Seamus, Ron and Dean sent hexes and curses at the other Slytherins. By then the Slytherins had recovered and sent spells of their own back but Harry had taught the DA well. Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville all had shield charms up. Two minutes later it was over. Not one of the Gryffindors had been touched.  
  
"Good bit of duelling that," Said a voice beside Harry. Moody was standing their looking at Harry and the others with pride, "Very impressive. You taught them well, Potter, I presume these are some of the DA?" Harry nodded.  
  
"You all might want to consider careers as Aurors." Said Moody before moving off into the crowd. Neville's grandmother came up to get Neville, as they walked off Harry heard Neville's grandmother say,  
  
"Maybe you do have some of your fathers talent."  
  
Harry saw Mrs Weasley and the girls come out of Flourish and Blotts.  
  
"Not a word to them." He said to Ron. Seamus and Dean had gone off to finish their shopping.  
  
"Have you got everything?" asked Mrs Weasley. Harry and Ron nodded.  
  
"Excellent" said Mrs Weasley. They headed to the Leaky Cauldron. Ron hung back, indicating Harry to do so at the same time.  
  
"What was Moody doing here?" asked Ron.  
  
"Probably making sure we're alright, remember I have to have some of the Order guarding me." Ron nodded, then grinned.  
  
"That was seriously cool." Harry smiled.  
  
"Yeah." They ran to catch up with the others. They all entered the Leaky Cauldron and sat down at an empty table in the corner. After they had ordered drinks Mrs Weasley turned to them.  
  
"Right, has everyone got everything they need?" There were nods all round the table.  
  
"Good," said Mrs Weasley, "We have to leave tomorrow, the ministry is sending a couple of cars. Get a good nights sleep tonight, we have to be up early tomorrow." They finished their drinks and left. They walked back to the fireplace that they had come through. Mrs Weasley gave each of them a bit of floo powder. Harry walked up to the fireplace after Ron and threw his floo powder in. Ten seconds later he was back in the dining room at Twelve Grimmauld Place.  
  
"Go upstairs and pack, we need to be ready to leave immediately tomorrow." Said Mrs Weasley as soon as she came through the fireplace. They all climbed upstairs, Cho stopped Harry just as he was going into his room.  
  
"What happened in Diagon Alley?" she asked.  
  
"Nothing" said Harry innocently.  
  
"There was a crowd around you that was just moving away as we came out, crowds don't happen for no reason." Harry grinned at her.  
  
"I forgot that you were in Ravenclaw, I should have known better than to try and hide something from you." Cho laughed,  
  
"Yes, you should have," her face became serious again, "now, what happened?"  
  
"Malfoy and a bunch of other people who I didn't know but I think they're in Slytherin, picked a fight with me, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville came and helped, we ended up having a fight, we cursed all of them, but none of us were touched.  
  
"Oh, are you sure you're ok?"  
  
"Like I said, none of us were hit by their spells."  
  
"That's good," said Cho. They went into their separate rooms.  
  
"Where've you been?" asked Ron as soon as Harry got into his room.  
  
"Talking to Cho." Harry bent over his trunk and started packing it. One hour later they were finished. They walked downstairs and went into the dining room. Mrs Weasley was just bringing out dinner. Lupin, Tonks and Moody were sitting at the table with the girls and Fred and George.  
  
"Hello boys." Said Lupin.  
  
"Hello, Moony." Said Harry.  
  
"Hi, Remus" said Ron. Mrs Weasley came and sat down and started dishing out food.  
  
"Moody told me about your fight in Diagon Alley!" Tonks said eagerly.  
  
"Uh oh" said Ron quickly. Mrs Weasley put the serving spoon down slowly.  
  
"What fight?"  
  
"Malfoy and a bunch of other people saw Harry coming out of a shop and Malfoy tried to curse Harry but missed when Harry turned around to walk away." Ron explained to Mrs Weasley what happened. Fred and George looked impressed.  
  
"Wicked!" said Fred.  
  
"Wish we'd been there, always wanted to curse that git Malfoy into oblivion!" said George enviously. Harry couldn't help but give a small smile.  
  
"BE QUIET YOU TWO!" Mrs Weasley bellowed at them, she turned on Harry and Ron.  
  
"WHAT WERE YOU TWO THINKING? FIGHTING IN THE MIDDLE OF DIAGON ALLEY!"  
  
"We didn't start it, Malfoy did! He tried to curse Harry first!" said Ron  
  
"Mum, He's Lucius' son! Harry put his dad in Azkaban! If Harry had walked away then Malfoy would've cursed him from behind." Mrs Weasley didn't want to admit but Ginny was right.  
  
"She's right you know, Molly, Harry had to fight back." Said Lupin.  
  
"Ok, I admit it, still I wish that it hadn't happened at all."  
  
"It will happen, it's going to happen all this year," said Harry, "Malfoy hates me even more now, every opportunity he gets he'll try and curse me."  
  
"Lets just drop this subject and eat, they have to be up early." Said Lupin. When Mrs Weasley wasn't looking Tonks mouthed 'sorry' to Harry. Harry grinned and leaned to his left where Ginny was sitting to talk to her.  
  
"Thanks, I think you've just saved mine and Ron's lives." Ginny laughed quietly.  
  
"No problem." When dinner finished Mrs Weasley told them to go up to bed. They all walked upstairs. Harry went into his room with Ron.  
  
"It was worth it, though" Ron said to Harry as they were getting changed.  
  
"What was?"  
  
"Cursing Malfoy, it was worth getting shouted at."  
  
"Yeah." Ron gave a sudden laugh.  
  
"Did you see Nott's face when Neville cursed him?" he asked Harry.  
  
"Oh yeah, it was so funny." Harry crawled into bed. Ron looked thoughtful for a minute.  
  
"Neville's getting quite good at fighting." He said.  
  
"He is, isn't he." Ron grinned at Harry.  
  
"Just goes to show, doesn't it?"  
"Shows what?"  
  
"What you did for us and were able to teach us in the DA" Harry grinned, unable to think of a response to that.  
  
"It was great though, the fight in Diagon Alley, I really enjoyed it."  
  
"Me too, but I get the feeling there will be plenty more."  
  
"Hopefully, goodnight mate." Said Ron.  
  
"Night." Harry turned over and went to sleep.  
  
It felt like he had only been to sleep for a few minutes before Mrs Weasley was shaking him awake.  
  
"Come on Harry, dear." After making sure that he was awake she moved over to Ron's bed to wake him up. Ron sat up yawning loudly.  
  
"Morning" Harry said to him.  
  
"Morning, sleep well?"  
  
"It didn't feel like I had been to sleep."  
  
"That's how I feel." They both struggled out of bed and got dressed. They went downstairs. Everyone else was sitting at the table looking very tired. They ate their breakfast in silence and half an hour later they were all ready to go.  
  
The front door opened and in walked Tonks, Moody, Lupin, Kingsley and Mr Weasley.  
  
"Right," barked Moody when everyone was standing by the front door, "what is going to is the ministry is sending four cars, Kingsley and Tonks will be in the first one. Molly, Ginny, Hermione and Miss Chang will be in the second one, Harry, Ron and Lupin will be in the third and Arthur and I will be in the fourth. Any questions? No? Good." Five minutes later the sound of cars stopping in front of the house could be heard.  
  
"Let's go then." They walked out and into the cars they were to travel to Kings Cross in. Five minutes later they began to move. Harry put his head back against the seat and went straight to sleep. Lupin woke Harry up just as they were arriving at Kings Cross. The driver pulled up in front of the entrance and they all got out and unloaded their trunks. They got some trolleys and wheeled them into the station. In ones and twos they crossed through the barrier onto platform nine and three quarters. The time was ten to eleven.  
  
"Bye, Mrs Weasley, thanks for everything." Harry said to her.  
  
"Bye, dear, have a good year." As everyone was saying his or her goodbyes Lupin moved over to Harry.  
  
"Bye, Harry, take care of yourself." Harry grinned.  
  
"You too, Moony."  
  
"Come on, Harry!" yelled Ron from the train.  
  
"Keep in touch" said Lupin.  
  
"Will do." Said Harry. He ran and jumped onto the train. He, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Cho went to the carriage at the very end. Harry sat down and Cho sat next to him, Ron, Hermione and Ginny sat opposite him. They spent most of the journey talking.  
  
The doors of the compartment slid open. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were standing there.  
  
"Potty, Two weasels, a mudblood and CHANG!" Malfoy said, surprised to see Cho there, "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Sitting down, waiting for the train to get to Hogwarts." Cho said calmly. Malfoy's face resumed its normal malicious smirk.  
  
"If you choose to hang around rubbish like that lot, well that's your decision, but it will rub off on you." Harry and Ron sprang to their feet.  
  
"I advise you to get lost or we will curse you to hell and back like in Diagon Alley." Said Harry menacingly his wand pointing at Malfoy. Ginny and Cho stood up with their wands out as well. Seeing that he was outnumbered Malfoy had no option but to leave.  
  
"C'mon" he muttered to Crabbe and Goyle resentfully. Half an hour later the Hogwarts express pulled into Hogsmeade station.  
  
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" came the familiar voice of Hagrid.  
  
"Hello Hagrid." said Harry.  
  
"Alrigh', Harry?" said Hagrid.  
  
"Not too bad, you?" replied Harry.  
  
"Very well." Said Hagrid.  
  
They headed to the carriages pulled by the thestrals. Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Cho all got into one.  
  
The carriages pulled them up to the school entrance. They got down and walked into the entrance hall. It was packed with students; gradually they made their way into the Great Hall. They walked towards the Gryffindor table and came to the point where Cho had to turn left to get to the Ravenclaw table.  
  
"See you, Harry," said Cho.  
  
"See you," They moved towards each other and kissed. The whole of the Great Hall fell silent, all eyes were on Harry and Cho. When Harry and Cho broke apart they became aware of the silence. They both blushed furiously and moved towards their house tables. Harry saw Cho sit down with a group of her friends and they all leaned in, no doubt to ask what was going on.  
  
Harry sat down next to Ron.  
  
"Harry!" Ron said sounding shocked  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Look who it is!" Harry looked up at the top table where Ron was pointing. Sitting there was none other than Moody.  
  
"He didn't tell me he was working here!" said Ron  
  
"Me neither." After the sorting, Harry didn't listen to the song; Dumbledore stood up to make a speech. When his speech had finished the tables filled with food. Everyone took some food and began eating.  
  
Dean Thomas leant over the table to talk to Harry.  
  
"What's going on with Cho?" all other conversations stopped as people waited to hear what Harry's answer was. Harry grinned  
  
"What it looks like, she's my girlfriend." Ron smirked at Harry.  
  
"Took them long enough though."  
  
"Shut up you." Harry said. Seamus, Dean and Neville looked at Harry impressed and jealous at the same time.  
  
"You're so lucky, this is Cho Chang we're talking about, one of the prettiest girls in the school!" Said Neville enviously.  
  
"Yeah, well, we all knew they liked each other so it isn't that much of a surprise" said Ron. They finished their meal ten minutes later. Dumbledore stood up.  
  
"Now that we have all eaten, I do believe that it is time for bed." The Great Hall filled with even more noise as people stood up and left. Harry, Ron and Hermione walked over to the Ravenclaw table.  
  
"Hi" said Cho. Harry leaned in and planted a kiss on her cheek. Several people near them slowed down, virtually to a stop to listen to Harry and Cho. Ron glowered at them and they resentfully sped up. They all walked out of the Great Hall.  
  
"Harry!" Hearing someone call his name Harry turned round. Dean, Neville and Seamus were running towards him.  
  
"Harry, when's the next DA meeting?" said Seamus, Dean and Neville were nodding their heads vigorously.  
  
"What?" asked Harry puzzled.  
  
"When's the next DA meeting?" Seamus repeated.  
  
"We don't need the DA anymore, we have a decent Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Said Harry.  
  
"It was useful. We actually learned how to fight with you, not just cast the spells."  
  
"Have you still got your coins?" Harry asked. Everyone took their coins out of their pockets.  
  
"Ok, tomorrow night, same time, same place." Harry took his coin out of his pocket. He pressed his wand to it and changed the numbers. All around the school the DA members felt their pockets burn. They took out their coins and checked the numbers. They smiled, the DA was back.  
  
A/N Hope that chapter wasn't too bad. Next chapter out in a couple of days hopefully. Please review to let me know what you think. Thanks to LogicalRaven for the reviews. Thanks to all my other reviewers. Keep reading, 'cos I'll keep writing!  
  
Fireboy. 


	8. The Return of Dumbledore's Army

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 8: The Return of Dumbledore's Army.  
  
Harry crawled into bed that night extremely tired, he was just about to go to sleep when he realised he hadn't got any spells to teach the DA. Mentally thanking Hermione for her excellent choice of birthday present, Harry quickly searched for his book, 'Curses and Counter Curses', grabbed it, took a quill, some ink and some parchment, put on his dressing gown and walked down into the common room. He sat in an armchair by the fire, which was still burning and opened the book. He quickly scanned the contents.  
  
"Defensive curses, Curses, Counter curses." Harry muttered as he looked down the list. Eventually deciding to teach them a defensive curse and a curse. He turned to page sixty-three, curses. He looked down the page, nothing interested him there, he turned the page over, one caught his eye, the burn curse. He read the description beneath it. A curse for causing an incredibly painful burn. He would get back to that one. He read the next couple without interest, one interested as soon as he saw it. The slashing curse. Harry read the description. A curse that will cause a deep cut to appear at the point of contact. Point your wand at the place on your foes body where you want the cut to appear. The incantation is 'slasio' pronounced sla-see-o. Upon incantation a silver streak of light should erupt from your wand.  
  
"That will definitely come in useful," said Harry to himself, he wrote the spell and it's effects down. He spotted a spare piece of parchment on a table. He picked it up and pointed his wand at it.  
  
"Slasio" a beam of silver light shot out of Harry's wand and struck the parchment, as if some had got a knife and had swept it through parchment, the parchment was split in half. Excellent, Harry thought to himself, that's one sorted. He sat down again and flicked back to the contents. After checking what page defensive curses were on, he turned to them. After leafing through the pages with nothing interesting him, Harry saw one particular spell. The healing spell. This spelled healed most cuts. Simply wave your wand over the cut area, the book stated, and say the incantation 'Healify'. Harry wrote that one down as well. Relieved to have that particular weight off his shoulders Harry went back to bed. He took off his dressing gown and climbed into bed. Within a couple of minutes he was asleep  
  
He woke up next morning to the sounds of the other boys getting dressed. He quickly got up and dressed and followed Ron out of the dorm. Hermione was waiting for them in the common room,  
  
"You two took a while," she said impatiently.  
  
"Good morning to you too." Said Ron sarcastically.  
  
"Sorry." Said Harry quickly, not wanting them to start arguing. They left the common and headed down to breakfast. Harry sat down next to Seamus and took a piece of toast. Ron sat down opposite Harry and grabbed everything within reach.  
  
"Where's Hermione?" asked Harry, seeing that she had not sat down with them.  
  
"Gone to get timetables, I think." Said Ron through a mouthful of bacon. A minute later Hermione came back. She passed Harry his timetable and then gave Ron his. Ron groaned aloud.  
  
"Double Potions with the Slytherins first thing." Harry glanced down at his.  
  
"Same"  
  
"That's going to be fun." Said Ron through gritted teeth.  
  
"What about you Hermione?" asked Harry.  
  
"Yes," said Hermione.  
  
"That's not too bad then," said Harry turning to Ron. Ron didn't hear him; he was glaring at his timetable as if he could force it to change by looks alone. Harry looked down his timetable to see what else he had today, after potions he had charms then lunch followed by transfiguration in the afternoon.  
  
"On the whole it's a pretty good day for me." Said Harry. He leaned over to check what Ron had. To his relief Ron had exactly the same lessons as him.  
  
"Have you got the same, Hermione?" Ron asked, having given up his attempt to change his timetable by glaring at it.  
  
"For today, yes." The finished their breakfast and hurried up to their dormitories to get their things. They quickly grabbed their potions stuff and rushed down to their dungeons. They only just avoided being late. They saw that the class was much smaller than it was last year, Harry noticed, with disappointment, that Malfoy was there as well. They managed to get seats at the back and had only just sat down when Snape walked in. The class immediately fell silent.  
  
"Well," he said quietly, "You are the people that did sufficiently well in your OWL's to continue with the subtle art of potion making, however I must say that I am surprised to see some of you here." His eyes rested on Harry for a minute. Malfoy turned round and smirked at him. Harry ignored it and listening to Snape.  
  
"This does not mean," Snape continued, "That you will have to try any less hard. You will continue to work just as hard or you will find yourself punished severely. Do I make myself understood?" The class nodded.  
  
"Excellent, today we will be brewing the Heating Draught. This is a potion that will allow you to warm up whenever you take it. I warn you, this is a very complicated potion, make sure you pay careful attention to what you are doing." Again he stared at Harry, Harry stared back, hating him. The instructions appeared on the board; Harry took out his cauldron and started adding the ingredients. Half an hour later the potion was meant to be turning a deep red, however Harry's was only a violent orange. As Snape passed Harry's cauldron, he smirked.  
  
"You haven't added enough borlion powder," whispered Hermione as soon as Snape was out of earshot.  
  
"Thanks." Harry whispered back. He added more of the borlion powder and to his immense satisfaction the potion proceeded to turn red.  
  
"Right," said Snape five minutes later, "This potion will need to simmer for the rest of the lesson. What I want you to do in the meantime is write a essay on the effects of adding too little gortan weed to the Heating Draught." At the end of the lesson everyone collected some of their potion in a flask and took it up to Snape's desk. Snape looked extremely disappointed when he saw the colour of Harry's potion.  
  
"Ten points from Gryffindor," he said to Hermione nastily when she handed her potion to him, "You should not have helped Potter." Harry turned to him angrily but Snape had turned away.  
  
"Homework tonight is to write a two foot essay on the effects of borlion powder in potion making." Snape said to the class before dismissing them. Hermione looked tearful as they left the class.  
  
"That was seriously unfair." Said Harry angrily.  
  
"What was?" asked Ron.  
  
"Snape just took ten points from Gryffindor because Hermione told me how to turn my potion from orange to red."  
  
"The git!" said Ron equally angry. They headed off to charms. Ron was still fuming as they entered the charms room.  
  
"Right class," squeaked Professor Flitwick from the front, "today we will be learning the hovering charm. This charm will allow things to hover for a short period of time; the incantation is 'asendio' raise your wand upwards and say 'asendio'." They turned to the cushions that they had to make hover. Within five minutes most of the class had got it.  
  
"How easy is this?" asked Hermione making her cushion hover for about ten seconds.  
  
"Not very!" said Ron through clenched teeth. "C'mon!" he said angrily as his cushion gave a feeble sort of bounce before falling back down onto the table.  
  
"You're doing the wand movement wrong" Hermione stated softly, not in her usual superior voice. Ron must have noticed this because his reply wasn't filled with anger.  
  
"How do you do it right then?" he asked.  
  
"It's more of flick when you raise your wand, not a straight up movement." Ron tried it and to his surprise it worked.  
  
"Thanks." He said awkwardly.  
  
"No problem" she smiled at him. They continued practising for another five minutes until Professor Flitwick told them to stop.  
  
"Tonight's homework, write a foot and a half essay on the hovering charm!" They hurried off to lunch and sat down at the Gryffindor table.  
  
"What have we got after lunch again?" said Ron through a mouthful of food, Hermione looked repulsed before answering in a disgusted voice,  
  
"Transfiguration"  
  
"Cool." Ron said before returning to stuffing his face. They finished their lunch before hurrying to the transfiguration room. They entered and sat down at the back. Professor McGonagall walked in. She surveyed the class before speaking.  
  
"Right, welcome to advance transfiguration. This year we will be transfiguring furniture into animals mostly," an excited whisper went round the room, they had wanted to transfigure furniture into animals ever since they had been shown it in their first year, "but we may do some minor human transfiguration. However, first take out your toads and we will transfigure them into plates. The incantation is 'platonius'" At the end of the lesson only Hermione had been able to transfigure her toad into a plate. Harry had managed to transfigure his toad into sort of plate shape plate but it still had the toad skin.  
  
"Potter, Weasley! I want to speak to you please!" Professor McGonagall said from the front of the class. Wondering what it was about, Harry and Ron walked up to her desk.  
  
"You have been made captain for the Gryffindor quidditch team." Ron turned and grinned at Harry.  
  
"Well done, mate!"  
  
"Yes, congratulations Potter. However could you please make sure that you win the quidditch cup again this year? It is starting to look natural in my office." She gave him a small smile.  
  
"I would like you both to work extra hard this year at your quidditch. That is all." Beaming from ear to ear Harry left the classroom with Ron.  
  
"I didn't expect it to be me," Harry said as they were walking up towards Gryffindor tower.  
  
"When you think about it though who else could it be?" Ron asked him.  
  
"Yeah, I suppose so." They gave the password to the Fat Lady, doxy fur, and climbed through the portrait hole. Hermione was working beside the fireplace. She turned round when she heard them enter.  
  
"I've been made captain of Gryffindor quidditch team." Harry told her grinning.  
  
"Oh, Harry that's excellent!" she exclaimed jumping up and giving him a hug, "congratulations!"  
  
"Thanks" He said smiling at her. He sat down at the table in the corner of the common room and started to do his homework. He had managed to complete Snape's essay before he went down to tea. After tea he went up to his room to get the sheet with the spells he was going to teach the DA on. At quarter to eight he left the common room with Ron and Hermione and proceeded to the room of requirement.  
  
At eight o'clock people began arriving. Five minutes later everyone was here and sat down looking up at Harry. He decided to get straight to the point.  
  
"Now that Voldemort is back then we will have to work extra hard." They flinched at Voldemort's name then nodded. "I have two spells I want to teach you." What I need is a dummy, he thought, intending to demonstrate the slashing curse. He spotted one in the corner.  
  
"Go get that dummy for me." He said to Ron, wondering what was coming Ron obeyed. When he had put the dummy about ten yards in front of Harry, Harry took out his wand. He pointed it at the dummy's chest.  
  
"The first spell I'm going to show you is the slashing curse, observe. Slasio!" a beam of silver light shot out of Harry's wand and struck the dummy. Immediately a deep gash appeared, about ten inches long, horizontally along its chest. They all looked impressed, even Zacharias Smith.  
  
"That is one cool curse." Said Dean in an awed voice. Quickly Harry counted them, twenty two, which would mean he would need eleven dummies. He spotted them in a corner.  
  
"Okay everyone, find a partner and get one of those dummies and practise the spell." Cho came up to Harry.  
  
"Hey Harry."  
  
"Hey, long time no see." Harry replied. He leaned in and kissed her. The whole room fell quiet as everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to watch. Ron's wand rose. "Unless you want me to hex you all into oblivion, I suggest you get on with what you are doing and stop watching Harry and Cho. Ron looked so angry that everyone immediately hurried to their tasks, everyone that is apart from Zacharias Smith.  
  
"Oh yeah," he sneered, "You reckon you can take us all on?" Ron's ears turned red, always a danger sign.  
  
"Watch it, Smith"  
  
"No, I don't think I will." And with that he sent a curse at Ron, who immediately deflected it with a shield charm.  
  
"STOP IT" yelled a voice. Everyone turned and saw Harry with his wand out, flicking it from Ron to Zacharias repeatedly. He looked furious.  
  
"We are here to learn to fight Voldemort," most people flinched at the name, "Not each other, so get a grip you two." They both looked embarrassed and mumbled an apology.  
  
"I'd better get practising," said Cho when Harry turned back to her. Harry watched her until she reached a spare dummy and started practising. Harry walked around the class correcting problems, after about ten minutes most people seemed to have got the spell sorted. At half past nine he called a halt,  
  
"On the whole that was good, it's not a difficult spell but it will be useful," said Harry, "the next spell I want you to learn will also be quite useful. It is called the healing spell. This spell will heal most cuts. After I demonstrate it I want you to practise it for the remainder of the session." Harry stopped before showing them the spell. It wouldn't quite be the same demonstrating it on a dummy; they have to see it on a person as well. Summoning his determination Harry pointed his wand it his left arm, where the bicep is. Hermione realised what he was going to do but bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything. People gasped as they realised what he was going to do, some opened their mouths to protest but Ron and Hermione shook their heads at them and they closed them again. "Slasio" said Harry. Immediately pain ripped through his arm, it was like when Wormtail had cut it to get the blood in his fourth year. Harry looked at his arm and saw a very deep cut that was bleeding freely. He waved his wand over it and said,  
  
"Healify" immediately the cut closed up and the pain disappeared. The room broke out into loud applause. Panting slightly fro the pain Harry silenced them.  
  
"You will be glad to know that I am not going to ask you to do that. I just felt you needed to see the spell on real skin. With your partner one use the slashing curse to create a cut and one heal it. Once you have done that the person that cut it heals it, and the person that healed it cuts it. Understand?" Everyone nodded. Harry walked towards Cho who had been on her own.  
  
"Do you want to cut or heal first?" he asked her.  
  
"I'll cut" she said. She sent the slashing curse at the dummy. Harry immediately healed it.  
  
"That was very brave of you," she said after five minutes. Harry's heart swelled, she had called him brave.  
  
"Thanks" he said. After another five minutes, Harry had to walk round to correct any mistakes. Cho went off to practise with Ron and Hermione. Cho seemed to be getting on well with Hermione after what had happened last year. Harry was pleased about that.  
  
Ginny was struggling with the healing part. She would wave her wand and say the incantation but nothing would happen. Harry thought about this for a moment and then he had an idea.  
  
"Try to concentrate on the cut more." She tried this and it worked. She smiled at him.  
  
"Thanks." Harry continued walking around. At nine o'clock Harry stopped them.  
  
"Today has been excellent, well done. I set the time of the next meeting when I have decided when it shall be." Harry let them go and started tidying up with Ron and Hermione. Cho tapped on the shoulder.  
  
"See you, Harry"  
  
"See you" They kissed each other and then Cho left. They finished tidying up and then they walked back to Gryffindor tower.  
  
"That was excellent, Harry" said Hermione as they were walking back.  
  
"Yeah it was." Agreed Ron.  
  
"Thanks, but you," said Harry, addressing Ron, "Need to control your temper."  
  
"I didn't start it!"  
  
"Doesn't matter, you should have just ignored him." Said Harry.  
  
"Easier said then done."  
  
"I don't care, just do it."  
  
"You 're starting to sound like Hermione!"  
  
"Ron Weasley! You say that like it's a bad thing!" She snapped. Ron yelped realising he had made a mistake.  
  
"I didn't mean it like that!" He said worriedly.  
  
"What did you mean it like then?"  
  
"Well, you're the one that's meant to give the advice like that, not Harry"  
  
"You're just digging a bigger hole for yourself." Harry said absent- mindedly. Harry stopped listening to them arguing.  
  
They reached the portrait hole and climbed through into the common room.  
  
"Night" said Hermione as she turned to go up to the girls' dormitories.  
  
"Night" said Ron.  
  
"Yeah, night." Harry followed Ron up into the boy's dormitory. Seamus, Dean and Neville were already asleep. Harry and Ron quickly got changed and crawled into their beds.  
  
"That was great." Said Ron.  
  
"Yeah it was" agreed Harry. They both turned over and fell asleep.  
  
Harry was woken up the next morning by the sounds of the other four getting dressed. He got up and got dressed and followed Ron down to breakfast, Seamus, Dean and Neville just behind them. As they got into the entrance hall they saw Malfoy standing there with Crabbe, Goyle and Theodore Nott, the latter who seemed to become a regular crony of Malfoy's. When Malfoy saw them standing there he grinned at Nott, Crabbe and Goyle and raised his wand, Crabbe's, Goyle's and Notts's all raised as well. Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville all raised their wands.  
  
"You are so dead, Potter." Spat Malfoy. Harry raised his eyebrows  
  
"Remember what happened in Diagon Alley?" Harry asked coolly. Malfoy had obviously not forgotten because with a furious look at Harry he put his wand away and muttered to Crabbe, Goyle and Nott who followed him into the Great Hall.  
  
"Damn!" Said Ron angrily, "I was hoping for a fight."  
  
"Where've you been?" asked Hermione when Harry and Ron sat down opposite her. Ron immediately began stuffing himself. He began to open his mouth to tell her,  
  
"No!" said Hermione hurriedly, "Harry can answer!" Ron closed his mouth looking offended.  
  
"We got held up by Malfoy." Harry explained.  
  
"I hope you haven't been fighting again!" said Hermione seriously.  
  
"No." Harry reassured her.  
  
"Unfortunately" muttered Ron but so that only Harry could hear. Harry grinned.  
  
"Oh, by the way." Said Harry before Hermione could ask what he was grinning at, "I want to do Chaser trials today and I want the whole team there."  
  
Ron nodded,  
  
"Ok." He said. They finished their breakfast and went and got their things, Harry looked at his timetable, Herbology first, then Defence Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures and Astronomy in the afternoon.  
  
Grabbing his things for Herbology he ran down to the greenhouses, closely followed by Ron and Hermione. They hurried through the door of greenhouse three and managed to slip in unnoticed by Professor Sprout.  
  
A/N Right I am going to have to leave it there because otherwise I would not be able to get this chapter up for a couple of weeks. I am going to be on half term for about ten days so I won't be able to get a chapter up for about two weeks as I won't have access to the internet while I am on half term.  
  
On a more serious note most of you will have noticed that my story has been messed up. This is not my fault; someone knew my passwords and was messing it up. I have got that problem sorted, I am sure of it. I think I have worked out how they were doing it and I sorted it out. But thanks for your patience, especially LogicalRaven. Keep reading 'cos I'll keep writing!  
  
Fireboy. 


	9. Chaser Tryouts and the First Quidditch M...

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 9: Chaser Tryouts and the First Quidditch Match.  
  
Harry didn't pay attention in any of his lessons, not even Defence Against the Dark Arts. He greeted Moody but after that he didn't bother listening, he had too much on his mind. Chaser tryouts were at four this afternoon and Harry was worrying about them.  
  
At three thirty Harry put his stuff in his dorm and got changed into his quidditch gear, grabbed his broom and hurried down to the quidditch pitch. After doing a few warm up laps around the pitch he noticed people were starting to arrive. He did a few more laps before flying down. Thanks to the DA meetings he was used to talking and giving orders to large crowds. He quickly counted them, twelve, which was perfect.  
  
"Right," said Harry, who was still sitting on his broom, "what we will do is three of you will go and do a pass and shoot game. Three will do a bludger dodging practice with Jack Sloper and Andrew Kirke; they will only use one bludger though. The rest of you will do passing practice. You three," He pointed to three third years, two boys and a girl who he was sure were called Robert Flaxwell, Samuel Garson and Jennifer Brockan, "go with Ron and do some passing and shooting." They nodded and walked off. For the first time he noticed Ginny in the crowd.  
  
"You three," indicating Ginny and two other people he didn't know, "Go and do bludger dodging, the rest of you go and do some passing." Everyone went and did what they were told to. Deciding to go and watch the bludger practice, as he hadn't seen the beaters play yet, he took off and went to watch them.  
  
After ten minutes he could watch no more, the beaters were appalling. They missed the bludger more often than they hit and Jack Sloper swung his bat and accidentally let go of it, it missed Kirke's head by inches. Both would need a lot of extra training.  
  
The Chasers were all right though; he had decided to narrow the group down to six possible people then from that choose the three chasers, Ginny Weasley was doing very well, she was running rings around the beaters, but then again, Harry reasoned, that wasn't particularly difficult. Nevertheless he kept her in mind as one of the possible six. The other two had not done very well, both had been hit by the bludger.  
  
Harry flew over to where the chasers were shooting at Ron, he was astonished at how well Ron was doing, he had obviously been practising over the summer before Harry had come to stay. Flaxwell was doing quite well, he was forcing some good saves out of Ron. Jennifer Brockan was doing ok as well but not nearly as well as Flaxwell. Garson was not doing well at all, he kept fumbling and dropping the ball. However he would definitely keep Flaxwell in mind.  
  
He flew over to where the remainder of the people were practising passing, some of the were quite good, but some kept fumbling the quaffle and dropping it. Deciding that it was time for them to change around, Harry called a halt, the people that had been passing and shooting or dodging the bludger went and did the passing and the other group split up and took their places. Harry went and watched the passing first, again Ginny excelled, the quaffle seemed to go to her hands. Harry noticed that Flaxwell was doing extremely well as well.  
  
After five more minutes Harry noticed that a severe competition was developing between Ginny and Flaxwell, they were chucking the ball as hard as the could at each other and were trying to make the other mishandle the ball and drop it by giving really difficult passes. After a couple more minutes Harry grew very angry.  
  
"WEASLEY, FLAXWELL!" Both looked up shocked. Harry beckoned them to him. They flew to him, their faces guilty.  
  
"You both came here to be chasers didn't you?" he asked them still angry. They both nodded, "not to give each other concussion."  
  
"Then I will not have you trying to knock each other out by chucking the quaffle as hard as you can at each other. Either you get a grip or you'll have to go. Got that?" They both nodded apologetically and flew off to continue practising.  
  
"Temper, Potter, you seem to be losing it too easily these days." Harry turned his broom round and saw Cho and Hermione grinning up at him.  
  
"She's right you know, Harry," said Hermione to him. Harry smiled.  
  
"What are you two doing here?" he asked.  
  
"Just thought we would come and watch." Said Hermione. Harry turned round to see how everyone was doing. To his surprise everyone was watching them.  
  
"C'mon, keep practising!" Said Harry, Cho laughed.  
  
"What's so funny?" demanded Harry playfully.  
  
"Nothing." She said. Harry kissed her and flew up to where three people were doing the passing and shooting.  
  
Half an hour later Harry was ready to narrow it down to six people. Calling them all to him, he took a list of six names out of his pocket.  
  
"First of all, you have all done very well, I am greatly impressed by the standard of talent here, so well done to all of you, but could these six people come back tomorrow as well as the rest of the Gryffindor team. Daniel Carton, Ben Sohill, Robert Flaxwell, Susie Radthorpe, Kevin Gaston and Ginny Weasley. Thank you and well done to everyone." Everybody walked off looking either disappointed or very happy. Ginny and Ron hung behind waiting for Harry. Harry, Ron and Ginny walked over to where Cho and Hermione waited. They all walked towards the castle.  
  
"I didn't think you were going to pick me." said Ginny.  
  
"You're too good not to be picked, but you have to learn not to compete like that with other team-mates. Things like that could cost us games." Ginny nodded.  
  
"Calm down," laughed Cho, "stop being so serious!"  
  
"When's our first match?" asked Ron.  
  
"A week, it's against Slytherin."  
  
"Excellent, that should be good." Said Ron pleased. They walked into the Great Hall and Cho went to sit at the Ravenclaw table. Harry sat down and started to eat slowly.  
  
"Harry!" said Hermione breaking into his thoughts.  
  
"Yeah, what?" returning to reality with a jolt of surprise.  
  
"When's the next DA meeting?" Asked Hermione.  
  
"Oh yeah, sorry." Said Harry. He took his coin out of his pocket and changed the numbers. Hermione took her coin out of her pocket and checked the numbers.  
  
"But that's a week and a half away!"  
  
"Yeah, but I want to get loads of quidditch practice in."  
  
"You're turning out like Angelina!" said Ron. Harry shrugged non-commitedly and returned to his thoughts. He was trying to decide who would be chasers, and then he had to get the whole team ready before the match against Slytherin.  
  
Ron tried to get his attention a couple times but soon gave up. They finished eating and returned to Gryffindor tower.  
  
"I'm off to bed, I'm pretty tired." Said Harry. He climbed the stairs to the boys' dormitories. He crawled into bed. Five minutes later he heard Ron come up as well.  
  
"Have you been practising over the summer?" Harry asked him. Ron nodded.  
  
"Yeah, I figured I needed to get a lot better before I came back to school."  
  
"You have got better, wish our beaters had as well, they're rubbish. By the way did you notice anyone who should be on the team?" Ron thought for a moment before replying.  
  
"Flaxwell should, he did well and I'm not saying this because she's my sister but Ginny did well as well."  
  
"I know, I saw her." Said Harry as he turned over to go to sleep.  
  
Harry woke up the next morning feeling refreshed so he got dressed and went down to breakfast.  
  
Hermione was sitting at the table eating so Harry went to join her. He sat down opposite her. She didn't notice Harry, she was reading something under the table. Harry waited for her to notice him.  
  
"Hermione?" said Harry after a couple of minutes. Hermione jumped and looked around worriedly. When she saw it was Harry she relaxed.  
  
"Sorry, Harry"  
  
"What's that you're reading anyway?"  
  
"A letter from Viktor."  
  
"Why are you hiding it?" asked Harry bemused. Hermione looked around and lowered her voice.  
  
"Because I don't want Ron to see it."  
  
"Why not?" asked Harry.  
  
"You know how he reacts."  
  
"You know what I think," said Harry casually, reaching over to the plate of sausages, "I think Ron's jealous."  
  
"What?" shrieked Hermione loudly, dropping the knife and fork she had just picked up. Harry looked round and saw people looking at them. He waited for them to turn away before replying.  
  
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed it. Ron's jealous." Said Harry, Hermione lowered her voice.  
  
"You think he loves me?" asked Hermione, Harry thought before replying.  
  
"I think," Harry said carefully, "He cares more deeply about you then he lets on."  
  
"You really think so?" asked Hermione disbelievingly.  
  
"Come on, Hermione! Face the facts, whenever you send or receive a letter from Krum then he gets worked up, it's so obvious!" said Harry exasperated. Hermione opened her mouth to reply but then shut it as she saw Ron enter the Great Hall. She gave Harry a look that clearly said don't mention anything to Ron.  
  
Ron sat down next to Hermione and took a piece of toast,  
  
"Morning" said Hermione.  
  
"Morning, Hermione" said Ron.  
  
"Chaser tryouts at four today." Said Harry to Ron. Harry finished his breakfast and checked his timetable. Fortunately he didn't have potions today, he grinned relieved. His last lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Feeling slightly more relaxed then he did yesterday he decided to find out why Moody was teaching at Hogwarts  
  
In the library Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe and Theodore Nott were sitting at a table tucked in a corner where they couldn't be seen or overheard easily. They were talking heatedly.  
  
"I hate that git, Potter!" spat Malfoy.  
  
"Yeah, something has to be done about him." Said Nott. Footsteps grew louder as somebody approached them, Malfoy turned round.  
  
"What do you want?" He sneered.  
  
"The same thing that you want" Roger Davies sneered back.  
  
"And what's that?"  
  
"Potter out of the way."  
  
"Why?" demanded Malfoy. Davies stared at him deciding whether or not to tell him.  
  
"Chang." He said finally. Malfoy burst out laughing. Davies' wand rose, so did Nott's, Crabbe's and Goyle's. Malfoy waved their wands down.  
  
"Calm down, boys, I like him," he turned to Davies, "I think you've made some new friends" Davies grinned maliciously and sat down.  
  
"What do you think we should do about Potter?" Malfoy asked him. Davies leaned back in his chair, the manic grin never leaving his face.  
  
"We should wait. Right now Potter goes everywhere surrounded by his little friends. That won't last for ever and when it stops that's when we strike." Malfoy looked at him for a minute.  
  
"It might be useful having a Ravenclaw to work with." Davies' grin grew wider.  
  
"And how do you propose to get Chang." Malfoy asked. Davies' grin vanished.  
  
"I'll find a way." He said guardedly, it was Malfoy's turn to grin.  
  
The first few lessons passed quickly for Harry and before he knew it, Harry was heading towards Defence Against the Dark Arts. He entered the classroom and walked up to Moody's desk. Moody grinned at him.  
  
"I wondered when you were going to come and talk to me, Potter." He growled.  
  
"Why didn't you tell us you were going to be teaching here?" Harry asked.  
  
"Dumbledore didn't want anyone to know," He lowered his voice and leaned closer, "He also wants some more of the Order at Hogwarts." Harry nodded and returned to his seat between Ron and Hermione. When everyone was sat down and silent Moody stood up.  
  
"In my opinion," Moody growled looking down at them all, his magical eye scanning them all, "theory and writing isn't going to help you in the real world, and helping to prepare you for the real world is exactly what I am here to do." He went and stood behind his desk.  
  
"Most of the stuff I do with you will be practical and if you have any sort of problem with the spells that I teach you then I suggest you come to me," his magical eye scanned them again for a second, "or go to Harry Potter."  
  
"What's Moody playing at?" Harry asked Hermione in a whisper.  
  
"He knows exactly what he's doing, he knows you're good at curses, hexes spells like that. Remember he knows about the DA." Harry nodded but he still wasn't too happy.  
  
"Right, the first spell I want to teach you is a binding spell, it's very basic but it will delay your average Death Eater for about ten seconds. The incantation is 'Delegaste'; at most the spell will last for about fifteen seconds. Potter could you come up here." Harry stood up and walked to the front of the class. Harry faced Moody and waited.  
  
"Delegaste" yelled Moody, but Harry was too quick for him. His shield charm was up milliseconds after Moody sent the curse at him. The reflected curse narrowly missed Moody who ducked just in time.  
  
"Very good Potter," said Moody approvingly, "your turn." Harry thought before sending the spell at Moody, if he sent the spell on it's own then Moody would just deflect it, but if he sent a decoy spell then Moody would deflect that, his shield charm would fade and the binding spell would hit him. Harry pointed his wand at Moody.  
  
"Impedimenta," He yelled, he sidestepped quickly so the spell wouldn't hit him when it was deflected, "Delegaste." He yelled, a second after he sent the impediment jinx at Moody. As he predicted, Moody deflected the first spell but could do nothing to block the second spell.  
  
Moody struggled against the invisible bonds that bound him for a few seconds before getting free.  
  
"THAT WAS RUDDY BRILLIANT, POTTER!" Moody roared, a second later he continued, "That was brilliant! He anticipated my next move and got round it, you have the makings of a very good Auror, Potter." For the rest of the lesson they divided into pairs, Harry, however, was taught advance techniques of duelling by Moody who felt that Harry did not need to practice the binding spell.  
  
At five to four Harry arrived at the quidditch pitch. Five minutes later everyone else had arrived.  
  
"Right, basically what I want to do is the same as yesterday, half of you will do a pass and shoot against Ron, half of you will do passing. Could Ben, Robert and Daniel do the pass and shoot and could the other three do the passing. They all flew off and begun. Harry decided to go and watch the passing. He noticed right from the start that Susie and Ginny linked up very well. They didn't exclude Kevin but they seemed to know exactly where the other person was, this provided some excellent passing. After fifteen minutes he went and watched the shooting, Flaxwell was doing very well, he was using the other two to create good goal scoring opportunities for himself and them. After another fifteen minutes he swapped the groups around. Again Ginny and Susie linked up well. Half an hour later Harry had seen enough and had decided. He called everyone to him.  
  
"Well done to everyone but unfortunately I had to choose three of you. The three new Gryffindor chasers are Susie Radthorpe, Ginny Weasley and Robert Flaxwell. Well done to those and commiserations to the other three. Could the Gryffindor team stay for training, our first match is against Slytherin and it's in five days time."  
  
On the day before the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match, Malfoy was standing in the Great Hall waiting for Nott. He heard someone approaching; he turned round and saw Roger Davies running towards him. He grinned at Malfoy.  
  
"I know how to get Potter out of the way!"  
  
"How?" asked Malfoy curiously.  
  
"In the quidditch match tomorrow make sure he gets hit on the head, then use a memory charm on him." Davies grinned evilly at him.  
  
"That's good, that's very good!" said Malfoy looking gleeful.  
  
The day of the quidditch match was bright with no wind. Harry got up and went down to breakfast. At quarter to eleven the whole of the Gryffindor team proceeded to the changing rooms. When they were all changed they mounted their brooms and flew out onto the quidditch pitch.  
  
"WEASLEY, SLOPER, KIRKE, WEASLEY, FLAXWELL, RADTHORPE AND POTTER!" greeted them amidst cheers from three quarters of the school.  
  
"Captains shake hands." Potter and Malfoy grudgingly shook hands. Then flew back to join their teams. The whistle blew and Madam Hooch threw the quaffle up in the air. Harry saw Ginny grab the quaffle and then he blocked out the rest of the game. He flew high above the match and searched for the snitch. After a while he noticed that Malfoy was tailing him,  
  
"If that's how you want to play it, Malfoy." Hovering for a few more seconds Harry went into a steep dive, to Harry's satisfaction Malfoy immediately dove with him. Harry timed the dive perfectly, two feet from the ground he yanked his broom handle up and spiralled back into the air.  
  
"AND LOOK AT THAT, HARRY POTTER PULLS OFF A WRONSKI FEINT!"  
  
"You'll pay for that, Potter!" said Malfoy as he remounted his broom, his nose bleeding freely. Harry saw that Malfoy had not given up and was still following him. Faking a look of intense concentration Harry started zigzagging down the pitch as if he was following the snitch, he slowed his broom down just enough for Malfoy to catch up with him. When Harry felt that Malfoy was close enough Harry pushed his broom handle down, but kept on pushing so he did an under loop the loop which brought him behind Malfoy. He barrel rolled to right himself and flew up high above the pitch. He continued to search for the snitch from high above the pitch; he let his concentration lapse a tiny bit so he could hear what the score was. After a few minutes of listening he gathered that the score was ninety-sixty to Gryffindor. Resuming full concentration he scanned the pitch for the snitch, as he did so he saw Cho in the stands. He lost all concentration as he stared at her.  
  
Suddenly he felt two bludgers, one after the other, hit him in the stomach, it knocked all the air out of him. He struggled to stay on his broom as he tried to regain his breath. After a minute he could breathe again.  
  
To his horror he saw the snitch, and Malfoy was about two feet away from it, an intensely satisfied grin on his face. There was no way that Harry could catch him up on his broom. Harry watched paralysed with terror, Malfoy had beaten him to the snitch. A new emotion flooded him, he stood up shakily on his broom, he knew what he was going to do. Crouching down again he grabbed the tail of his broom and the handle. He urged the broom forward in a dive and when he felt he had gathered enough speed he jumped off, pulling the handle up slightly as he did so. He heard the crowd gasp as the broom dived with a slight curve to it. Harry was a hundred feet above Malfoy but was in front of him.  
  
Harry was freefalling at an extreme speed. He felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and excitement that had he had never felt on a broom. Harry felt fear as he realised that he was likely to miss his broom.  
  
Malfoy was filled with exhilaration, it didn't matter that Crabbe and Goyle had missed Harry's head but they had winded him, which meant that he, Draco Malfoy, was going to catch the snitch. He was so filled with joy that he could taste it. The snitch was right in front of him, he reached out his hand and it brushed his fingertips, he was almost there.  
  
Malfoy saw something scarlet shoot past him, a split second later the scarlet thing was gone. Malfoy cursed under his breath, that scarlet thing had distracted him and the snitch had vanished, never mind, he thought; at least Potter didn't have it.  
  
Harry was exultant; he had pulled it off, not entirely. He searched for his broom and felt terrified when he couldn't see it; there was only about thirty feet to the ground.  
  
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something streak along, parallel to the ground about fifteen feet up. Ten feet from his broom he realised he had been extremely lucky, everything had been timed perfectly.  
  
He hit his broom and struggled to stay balanced, the impact had knocked the broom handle down and it went into a steep dive, Harry was still struggling to regain balance. Seven feet to the ground, six, five, four. Three feet from the ground Harry regained enough balance to yank the broom handle sharply upwards. He soared to fifty feet above the ground, fear, relief and adrenaline making him light headed. He slowly put his arm into the air. The stand was silent, everything had stopped and everyone was looking at him.  
  
"Harry Potter has, without doubt, pulled of the greatest quidditch manoeuvre ever." Said the commentator quietly, but everyone heard it. Three quarters of the stand suddenly erupted into cheers. They had all just witnessed the most daring manoeuvre ever.  
  
Draco Malfoy was angrier than he ever had been in his life. He was so near to catching the snitch, so near to beating Potter, and Potter had pulled off something like that. Drawing his wand slowly, he pulled is wand slowly and pointed it at Potter who was motionless in the air. Pointing at him he muttered a curse. He watched, with immense satisfaction, Harry's surprise as the curse struck him.  
  
Harry had his arm up in the air when he felt something hit him, the force of it knocked him off of his broom. He hurtled to the ground and heard a sickening thud as he hit it, then he blacked out.  
  
Harry woke up in the hospital wing; the first thing that he noticed was a terrible pain all over, the second he noticed was a different feeling, it hurt, but not like pain, it was like emptiness. He couldn't move, He saw Ron, Hermione, Cho and Ginny sitting there looking at him worriedly. They saw that he was awake, Cho, Ginny and Hermione had all been crying, their eyes were red. Cho attempted to fling herself onto Harry, but Ron threw himself in front of her and stopped her.  
  
"Thank God! You're awake!" said Cho.  
  
"What happened?" asked Harry croakily.  
  
"Malfoy cursed you after you caught the snitch." Explained Hermione.  
  
"How the hell did you do that?" asked Ron, grinning at him, full of relief.  
  
"Do what?" asked Harry stupidly.  
  
"Do what?" mimicked Ron, "catch he snitch like that you idiot!"  
  
"I dunno, I just did it, I guess."  
  
"Well let me tell you, mate, you are even more of a hero than you already are, nobody has talked about anything else!" Harry tried to sit up but found that it hurt too much so he stayed as he was.  
  
"How long have I been in here?" he asked them.  
  
"Three days." Said Ginny.  
  
"Three days!"  
  
"Yes Harry, and I can tell you your friends have all been extremely worried, especially Miss Chang" came a familiar voice. Dumbledore walked through the door, his eyes twinkling. Harry and Cho blushed simultaneously. Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Dumbledore laughed. Harry held his arms out to Cho and she came to them relieved. As he held her, the feeling disappeared, it was like they were one. Dumbledore smiled sadly.  
  
"You two are just like James and Lily." And with that he bowed to them and swept out of the hospital wing.  
  
"YOU FOOLS! YOU IDIOTS," screamed Roger Davies, "I GIVE YOU COUPLE OF SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS AND YOU CAN'T EVEN FOLLOW THEM!" Malfoy, Davies, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle were out in the grounds. Crabbe and Goyle hung their heads, they knew they had done wrong, they had missed Harry's head which they had been meant to hit with the bludgers.  
  
"AND YOU! YOU MESSED UP EVEN MORE!" Davies screamed at Malfoy, who didn't show any emotion on his face. "YOU WERE MEANT TO MEMORY CHARM POTTER, NOT KNOCK HIM OFF OF HIS BROOM" At this Malfoy lost his temper.  
  
"I COULDN'T HAVE MEMORY CHARMED HIM, THESE TWO DIDN'T HIT HIM WITH THE BLUDGERS!"  
  
"WELL, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE CURSED HIM AT ALL THEN!" Both Malfoy's and Davies' wands rose. Nott pushed their arms back down again.  
  
"Calm down," he said, "There will be other opportunities to get him. And believe me, we'll get him."  
  
A/N IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THIS NOTE! Right. First of all, my sincerest apologies for not updating, I've been on half term and couldn't get anything typed as I didn't have access to a computer to do it on.  
  
Second and most importantly, some of you might have noticed problems, chapter names changed, chapters in the wrong places things like that. None of that was me. That is all sorted now, none of that will ever happen again. Also some of you will have noticed a really messed up chapter eight at one point. That was definitely NOT me. Someone was hacking into my account and uploading sick chapters that they had typed. None of that will ever happen again. I only managed to get onto the Internet once while I was on half term and I checked the chapter names but I didn't check the chapters and it was a friend who told me about it. I have got that sorted and it won't happen again. Thanks for your patience.  
  
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing.  
  
Fireboy. 


	10. The First Attack

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter Ten: The First Attack.  
  
Harry was allowed to leave the hospital the next day, much to the relief of Cho. He quickly realised what Ron had said was true; he was more of a hero than he already was. He had complete strangers come and ask him how he did it, how he managed to do something like that, at first it took him by surprise, then he just got used to it. For once he was more famous for doing that then he was for being the Boy-Who-Lived. Every time he was asked Harry gave the same answer.  
  
"I dunno, I just did it, I guess."  
  
People would stop and stare more than they usually did, whispers followed him like shadows.  
  
"He jumped right off of his broom.", "How did he manage to pull it off?"  
  
Not everyone was impressed, the Slytherins hated him more than ever after what had happened. Every day groups of them would appear out of the shadows and from behind statues, wands raised but would slink off disappointed when they saw that he was surrounded by Gryffindors, who had taken it upon themselves to protect Harry. Although Harry suspected that it was not entirely at there own disposal, he suspected that Professor McGonagall had something to do with it. Nevertheless he was very grateful for it.  
  
Harry left transfiguration on Monday morning and went down to the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione. He sat down at the Gryffindor table between Ginny and Seamus and started eating his lunch. A couple of minutes later Ginny nudged him.  
  
"What?" Harry asked her.  
  
"What's wrong with Cho?"  
  
"Huh?" Harry looked over to where Ginny was pointing. Cho had entered the Great hall crying heavily. "What the-" Harry jumped and ran over to where Cho was. All eyes seemed to be on him as he reached her, the noise level died down as everyone turned to watch them.  
  
"Cho! What's wrong?" he asked her. Cho put her arms round Harry.  
  
"Not here." She said between sobs. Harry took her hand and led her out of the Great Hall. As he did so, Professor Flitwick, as head of Ravenclaw stood up to go after them. Dumbledore pushed him down again.  
  
"Let Harry go," he said smiling. Professor Flitwick sat down again.  
  
"From what I've heard," he said in his squeaky voice, "they act just like James and Lily.  
  
"They do." said Dumbledore smiling.  
  
Harry led Cho out into the grounds and they sat down leaning against a rock looking out over the lake. Cho put her head on Harry's shoulder.  
  
"What's wrong?" Harry asked her gently.  
  
"Roger Davies cornered me as I was leaving the common room to go down to lunch and he tried to kiss me, he wouldn't let me go, I was so scared! He just wouldn't let me go!" Harry felt furious.  
  
"He didn't!" Harry exclaimed.  
  
"He did."  
  
"Its alright now, I'm here!" Harry kissed her on the softly on forehead. "Wait here, I won't be long."  
  
"Where are you going?" asked Cho in a terrified voice.  
  
"Just wait here." Harry said reassuringly before walking purposely across the grounds to the door leading into the entrance hall. His footsteps were loud on the stone floor as he walked towards the door into the Great Hall. He drew his wand and threw open the large double doors. They made a huge crash as they hit the walls. Every conversation had stopped as people turned to look at what had made the noise. They saw Harry Potter standing there, wand drawn looking furious. He looked so angry he was terrifying. Harry strode towards the Ravenclaw table where there was one conversation still going on, Roger Davies was talking and laughing, his back to Harry, with a couple of his friends.  
  
Harry grabbed Davies by the collar, pulled him upwards and threw him across the floor. Davies skidded across the floor for about six metres before coming to a stop. He looked surprised and shocked as he got to his feet. Nobody moved or did anything, they were all too surprised.  
  
"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Harry growled.  
  
"What?" asked Davies surprised.  
  
"Don't play guessing games with me, Davies, you know exactly what."  
  
"I don't." He said but there was a hint of fear in his voice. Davies raised his wand. No one had seen Harry like this before, this was a completely new side of him.  
  
"You try anything like that again and you won't live to see the next day."  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about!" he said desperately. As quick as lightning Harry pointed his wand at the floor between Davies' legs.  
  
"Reducto!" Harry's curse hit the floor where he had aimed it, with a bang like a gunshot, fragments of stone flew upwards and Davies jumped backwards, lost his footing and fell over. Harry turned and strode out of the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione jumped up and ran after him. They saw him leave the castle and walk out into the grounds.  
  
"Harry!" yelled Hermione running to catch up with him. Harry just ignored her and continued to where Cho was waiting. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her. Ron and Hermione caught up with him.  
  
"What was that all about, mate?" asked Ron.  
  
"What did he do?" asked Cho tearfully. Hermione told Cho what had happened in the Great Hall.  
  
"You shouldn't have, Harry, you'll get into so much trouble." Said Cho sobbing.  
  
"I don't care." Said Harry.  
  
"What happened that made you do that?" asked Ron again. Cho told him what Roger Davies had done.  
  
"He didn't!" said Ron astonished. Cho nodded dumbly. Just then Dumbledore walked out into the grounds.  
  
"I think you had better come with me Mr Potter, you too Miss Chang" Dumbledore said calmly. Harry and Cho got up and followed Dumbledore into the entrance hall. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were standing there with Roger Davies. Dumbledore led them all into his office. He surveyed Harry and Davies.  
  
"Would you care to explain what that was all about?" asked Dumbledore calmly.  
  
"Gladly," Harry growled, "Davies tried to. he tried to." Harry didn't seem able to get the words out.  
  
"He tried to kiss me as I was going down to lunch and wouldn't let me go when I struggled." Said Cho tearfully. McGonagall and Flitwick gasped.  
  
"And then you saw what I did." growled Harry.  
  
"Is this true?" Dumbledore asked Davies still calmly.  
  
"No!" Davies protested. Harry's wand rose.  
  
"Don't lie, don't you dare lie!" he said forcefully.  
  
"Harry I suggest you lower your wand." Said Dumbledore coolly.  
  
"Not until he starts telling the truth." Said Harry even more forcefully, his wand still pointing at Davies' chest  
  
"Harry." Said Cho gently. Harry lowered his wand. The Professors all smiled faintly at how easily Harry had given in to Cho.  
  
"I ask you once again, is this true." Said Dumbledore.  
  
"Yes." Said Davies.  
  
"Then you have earned yourself two weeks detention the only reason I am not taking points off is that it is unfair on Miss Chang. Is that all right with you Professor Flitwick?"  
  
"That is perfectly fine with me, headmaster."  
  
"Now off you go." Harry, Cho and Davies left the headmasters office.  
  
"I'm warning you, Potter, be very careful." Snarled Davies.  
  
"Is that supposed to scare me?" Harry retorted.  
  
"One of these days you're going to end up like your precious godfather."  
  
"What did you say?" Harry asked, stunned.  
  
"You heard, one of these days-" In a flash Harry's wand was out and pointing straight at Davies' heart.  
  
"Give me a reason and I will curse you from here to next month." Said Harry dangerously.  
  
"Harry, don't, he's not worth it." Said Cho pulling him away from Davies. Harry put his wand back in his robes and followed Cho out into the grounds. Ron and Hermione saw them and sprang up and ran towards them.  
  
"What did Dumbledore do?" asked Hermione.  
  
"He gave Davies two weeks detention."  
  
"That's good," said Hermione  
  
"C'mon, we'd better get to lessons." Said Ron. They all ran inside and headed off to their lessons.  
  
The next day Harry woke up late and hurried down to breakfast. He arrived in time to see the owl post just arriving. He sat down in between Ron and Hermione. He had barely sat down before gasps of horror sounded throughout the hall. Hermione gasped loudly. Quivering she held the Daily Prophet out to Harry, Harry looked at the headlines and barely stifled a gasp. In big, bold letters was,  
  
YOU-KNOW-WHO MAKES HIS FIRST MOVE.  
  
You-Know-Who attacked a small village in the north of England last night, killing at least twelve witches and wizards and forty muggles. Ministry experts are unsure why he chose to attack this small, virtually unheard of village. Aurors rushed to the sign in the early hours of the morning.  
  
Harry didn't read anymore. He saw someone run up and give the Daily Prophet to Dumbledore who read it looking grave. A couple of minutes later the Hall fell silent as every eye turned to Dumbledore. He stood up his face serious.  
  
"This is it. The second war has begun." He said gravely.  
  
At ten to eight Harry, Ron and Hermione proceeded to the Room of Requirement. By five to eight the last person, Zacharias Smith, had arrived.  
  
When everyone was seated and quiet Harry stood up.  
  
"The second war has begun so we are no longer an organisation where we are simply taught curses and other spells like that. We are now an army, we are Dumbledore's Army." There was a good deal of cheering at that. When it died down Harry spoke again.  
  
"I am not going to lie to you, this is not going to be safe. There are going to be risks in doing this. If anyone doesn't want to take those risks than you can leave." Nobody moved. "Right, first of all, I am not going to pretend that nothing could happen to me, a lot could happen to me. If something does happen, then don't give up. Ron will take over from me, ok?" They all nodded.  
  
"Before the war ends there is almost certainly going to be pitched battles. If we happen to be in one of those battles and we all get split up then the leader, either me or Ron, will send up green sparks like this." Harry sent up a shower of emerald green sparks. "That shows you where you are to rally." Everyone nodded.  
  
"Right, the spell I thought I would teach you to do today is," Everyone relaxed as they slipped back into the normal routine of a DA meeting, "demurus, deh-mur-us and you have to concentrate very hard on the spell. Basically this is an advance form of the shield charm. The shield charm can only block one spell before fading, this spell will last for up to ten seconds and it will deflect every spell that hits it for the ten seconds that it lasts. Very few of you will get it first time, it is a very advanced spell but very useful, I'll demonstrate, now, I haven't practised this before so you may have to wait for me to get it." Harry took out his wand and held it out at chest height, his arm bent so his wand was about thirty centimetres away from him. He concentrated hard,  
  
"Demurus" To Harry's immense surprise a semi-transparent silver wall that was about the thickness of a sheet of paper appeared in front of him. It shimmered there for about ten seconds before disappearing.  
  
"Ok, split up into pairs and practice using the spell, one person will practice the spell and the other person will try to disarm them, and only disarm them." He said. People divided up into pairs. Cho walked over to Harry and put her arms around his neck and looked at him; he put his hands on her hips. The noise died down.  
  
"Ron, don't bother," said Harry without turning his head, sure enough Ron's wand had been rising as people stopped what they were to doing to watch.  
  
"Am I really that predictable?" Ron pouted; Harry turned his head and looked at him.  
  
"Yes." Several people laughed at this and Ron put on a mock hurt expression. Harry turned back to Cho.  
  
"Thanks for this morning," she said softly. "No problem." He said, just as softly. They leaned in and kissed gently.  
  
"Why did you do that to Davies?" asked Dean when Harry and Cho had broken apart, but they still had their arms round each other.  
  
"I'm not going to tell you."  
  
"You were damn scary though, I've never seen you like that!" He said, people called out in agreement.  
  
"It was extremely brave of you though!" said Lavender.  
  
"Do something to Cho and he'll do that to you." Called out Ron from the back.  
  
"So that's what it's all about! Davies did something to Cho, what did he do?"  
  
"I'm not-"  
  
"He tried to kiss her as she was going down to lunch." Said Ron casually, grinning at Harry. Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Ron.  
  
"You'd better have learned the demurus charm!" threatened Harry, smiling. Ron, still grinning, held his hands up in mock surrender. Everybody was laughing at this.  
  
"Ok," said Harry after five minutes, "I'll let you know when the next meeting is." They all left the room of requirement. Hermione and Ron walked towards Gryffindor tower for a couple of minutes before realising that Harry was not going to catch up with them, they stopped and turned round.  
  
"Where is he?" asked Ron.  
  
"If I'm not mistaken he didn't leave the room of requirement," she turned her head and grinned at Ron, "and I don't think Cho did either."  
  
Half an hour later Harry climbed through the portrait hole to see, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Seamus, Dean and Neville looking at him, clearly waiting for his return.  
  
"And where have you been?" asked Ron, trying to look stern but failing dismally. Harry blushed.  
  
"In the room of requirement" he said sheepishly.  
  
"Doing what?" asked Ron relentless of Harry's blushing.  
  
"Tidying up!" he said defensively, blushing even more.  
  
"With who?" asked Ron, by now everyone apart from Harry was grinning broadly.  
  
"Cho."  
  
"For half an hour!" exclaimed Ron in mock surprise. Everyone was laughing at Harry blushing and Ron teasing him mercilessly  
  
"Alright, I don't suppose I need to tell you this but I expect I'm gonna have to tell you anyway, Cho and I were kissing. Everyone let out a loud cheer and started laughing noisily, Harry grinned sheepishly.  
  
Professor McGonagall entered the common to find out what all the noise was about.  
  
"What is the cause of all this noise?" she asked. Ron grinned evilly at Harry.  
  
"I'm warning you!" Harry said to Ron seriously.  
  
"Harry's been in the room of requirement for the last half an hour." Ron said to professor McGonagall cheerfully.  
  
"I'm warning you, Weasley, one more word!" Harry said dangerously.  
  
"Oh yes?" said professor McGonagall, her eyebrows raised. A small smile playing on her lips.  
  
".with Cho."  
  
"Weasley, I really am warning you," said Harry even more dangerously.  
  
".and they've been kissing." Ron threw a triumphant look at Harry that quickly changed to horror. Harry sprinted across the room and rugby tackled Ron, they both flew over one of the couches where they both disappeared from sight. A second later Ron's torso appeared above the top the couch; he threw his arms in the air in a gesture of success.  
  
"I'm alright!" He yelled triumphantly. He suddenly yelped as Harry dragged him back down out of sight. Everyone was rolling around on the floor laughing hysterically apart from professor McGonagall who was standing there looking amused and making no move to stop them. All they could hear was Ron's yelps of pain.  
  
"Gerroff" screamed Ron.  
  
"I warned you, Weasley." A couple of minutes later Harry got off Ron. Ron stood up looking thoroughly beat up.  
  
"You are such a prat!" said Ron sulkily before trudging upstairs.  
  
"Well, I did warn you." Said Harry fairly, smirking at Ron's retreating back. Everyone was still rolling about on the floor, howling with laughter. Professor McGonagall smiled at Harry before leaving the common room. A couple of minutes later everyone had recovered.  
  
"He got what he deserved." Said Ginny trying not to burst out laughing again,  
  
"He was warned, I don't exactly want every teacher in the school knowing!" said Harry.  
  
"Come on Harry! They already know!" said Hermione exasperated.  
  
"Yeah, well," said Harry. Eventually everybody went to bed. Harry crawled into bed,  
"I'm never speaking to you again," came Ron's voice.  
  
"But you just have." Said Harry.  
  
"Yeah, but that was to tell you I'm not going to speak to you ever again."  
  
"But you've just spoken to me again." There was silence for a minute.  
  
"Shut up!" came Ron's indignant voice, knowing he had been beaten. Harry grinned to himself in the darkness, he heard Seamus, Dean and Neville sniggering as well.  
  
Malfoy, Davies, Crabbe, Goyle and Nott were in the library before breakfast the next day.  
  
"What did you do that made Potter do that to you yesterday?" Malfoy asked Davies. Davies stared at him trying to decide whether he should tell or not.  
  
"I tried to kiss Chang before breakfast." He said.  
  
"And I thought Ravenclaws were meant to be smart." Said Malfoy smirking.  
  
"So that's why you've got the two weeks detention." Said Nott, Malfoy's smirk widened.  
  
"I didn't know that! What did Potter get?" he drawled.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Nothing! Something has to be done about Potter!" said Malfoy angrily.  
  
"I know."  
  
"What do you propose?" asked Malfoy. Davies leaned back on his chair.  
  
"There's no point in trying to get Potter in secret. We'll have to do it obviously."  
  
"But that's suicide! We'll be expelled for sure!" exclaimed Nott.  
  
"Not if there's a lot of us. The worst that will happen is we'll all get detentions. Think about it, if there's, say, thirty or forty of us than Dumbledore can't expel forty of us, nor can he take off points, it would take too many off. Like I said, he can only give us detentions."  
  
"That's good, when can we do it?" asked Malfoy pleased. Davies smirked maliciously.  
  
"Can you find forty people who hate Potter before dinner tonight?"  
  
"Easily." Said Malfoy.  
  
"Then go and do it."  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione left the portrait hole and hurried down to dinner after lessons. To their surprise at the bottom of the marble staircase stood a crowd of Slytherins, fifty at least. Harry also saw Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Davies standing in the crowd. Malfoy spoke.  
  
"You are so dead, Potter."  
  
"Go get Dumbledore, I'll take care of these clowns," said Harry taking out his wand, Ron opened his mouth to argue, "Go!" Harry ordered him. Hermione and Ron ran off, the Slytherins shot spells at them but none of them hit.  
  
"You are so dead, Potter." Malfoy repeated. Harry raised his eyebrows,  
  
"Yeah? And you need a small army to do it?" Without waiting for him to respond Harry darted off to the right and ran out into the grounds. He turned round and saw the slytherins running after him. He produced an advanced shield charm as the Slytherin's spells came towards him they bounced off and hurtled back towards the mass of Slytherins. Three of them got hit by the spells, all of them developing deep cuts.  
  
Harry's shield charm faded so he threw himself to the right.  
  
"Slasio, slasio, slasio." He had time to yell before being forced to make another shield charm. He saw another three people develop deep cuts. Malfoy, to Harry's horror, sent a group of people round to Harry's left and a group round to his right. Knowing he wouldn't be able to defend three sides at once he fell further back, as he turned round to produce another shield charm he felt a searing pain develop in his shoulder. He looked down and saw blood pouring through his robes. He looked up and one of the Slytherins was sprinting towards him, wand raised, opening his mouth to perform a curse.  
  
"Delegaste!" yelled Harry; the boy fell forwards, bound by invisible ropes. "Stupefy!" The boy was knocked unconscious. Harry's wand became a blur as he set up shield charms and sent out stunning spells and slashing curses.  
  
Ron and Hermione ran into the Great Hall,  
  
"Professor Dumbledore! Harry's been attacked by the Slytherins!" The Great Hall fell silent at these words. Suddenly, before anyone else had recovered, eighteen people jumped up and, with Ron and Hermione, sprinted out of the Great Hall,  
  
"Where is he?" asked Dean,  
  
"Out in the grounds I reckon!" said Ron. They sprinted out into the grounds and they saw a huge crowd of Slytherins, with several lying on the ground, firing spells at a lone figure, whose wand was a blur. They saw Harry send up emerald green sparks and they sprinted towards him.  
  
The Slytherins saw a group of people run and gather round Harry. The DA began firing spells back towards the Slytherins. The teachers, closely followed by the rest of the school arrived out into the grounds to see two groups of people rapidly firing spells at each other, neither group realised the arrival of the teachers or the other students.  
  
Although outnumbered two to one the DA managed to inflict casualties on the Slytherins. Harry saw Parvati get hit by a jet of red light; she fell to the ground unconscious.  
  
"Ginny, help Parvati!" Harry yelled. Ginny nodded and ran to Parvati to revive her. "Ginny, Parvati, Cho, Hermione, Lavender, Luna help anyone who gets hit" Harry yelled as two more people fell. "Goldstein, Smith, Boot protect them." The two people who were hit, Seamus and Michael Corner, both stunned, were soon revived. After five more minutes the DA, gradually pushed the Slytherins back. Just then Dumbledore stepped between the two groups.  
  
"That will do." He said calmly. The DA all lowered their wands.  
  
Seeing an opportunity he could not bear to pass up, Malfoy sent a slashing curse at Harry.  
  
The curse caught everyone by surprise as it flew through the air at Harry, recovering quickly Harry managed to get a shield charm up, it had been up less then a second before the curse hit and bounced off back at Malfoy, Malfoy however was not quite so quick and the curse hit him in the face, causing a cut to appear on his cheek. Furious he pointed his wand at Harry who raised his own wand. The DA all raised their wands and Malfoy was forced to admit defeat.  
  
"This isn't over yet, Potter!" He said maliciously.  
  
A/N Right, another chapter done. Hopefully this fic will be about twenty to twenty five chapters long, these next few chapters are going to be the last chapters in which nothing really happens. In response to Anime-Master7's question this is unlikely to be a Ron/Hermione fic, I don't know exactly quite yet, but it is unlikely, let me know in your reviews if you want this to include Ron/Hermione. Thanks to everyone for their reviews.  
  
Daisie- Half term is a week long holiday in the middle of the term/semester.  
  
LogicalRaven- I know that Roger Davies was in seventh year, I just thought it might make the story a bit better if he was out to break Harry and Cho up, and about what you said about him being a nice guy, you'd be surprised what love does to you! Not that I've ever tried to break people up, but I've seen it happen. Thanks a lot for all your reviews.  
  
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing!  
  
Fireboy. 


	11. The DA at War

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter Eleven: The DA at War.  
  
"Now, would anyone care to tell me what this is all about?" said Dumbledore, still calmly. The other teachers were standing a little way behind him, Harry opened his mouth to speak, panting slightly from the wound on his shoulder, but before he could say anything Ginny stepped in front of him.  
  
"Healify" she said quietly. The wound on his shoulder disappeared.  
  
"Thanks, Gin," Harry said, "Ginny, Cho, Luna, Parvati, Lavender and Hermione go and heal anyone who needs it, heal any Slytherins aswell." They nodded and walked around, treating anyone who needed it.  
  
"A group of Slytherins ambushed Ron, Hermione and me when we were going down to breakfast." said Harry  
  
"Is this true?" Dumbledore asked the crowd of Slytherins  
  
"Yes." Said Malfoy sulkily, knowing that there were too many of them for him to lie his way out of this.  
  
"As you all know I could not expel or suspend you, nor could I take points off, simply because there are too many of you. Instead each member of Slytherin present will receive a months detention, and, naturally, you will join them, Mr Davies." Said Dumbledore grimly.  
  
"What about Potter? Aren't you punishing him?" Blurted out Malfoy angrily.  
  
"I see no need as his was an act of self defence." Said Dumbledore simply.  
  
"You would think that! You always did favour Potter above anyone else." Sneered Malfoy. In a flash Harry had Malfoy by the collar and his wand pointing at his chest.  
  
"Don't you dare insult Professor Dumbledore like that." Said Harry, his voice hard and dangerous.  
  
"That will do Harry." Said Professor Dumbledore quietly. Reluctantly Harry let go of Malfoy's collar.  
  
"I want everyone to return to the castle and I don't want anything else to happen." Said Dumbledore. As everyone was moving back to the castle Moody waited for Harry. When he saw him he held him back and waited for everyone else to disappear.  
  
"That was very impressive, Potter."  
  
"Thanks." Said Harry awkwardly.  
  
"You've taught the DA very well and they are incredibly loyal to you. When Ron and Hermione ran into the Great Hall and told Professor Dumbledore what was happening they all jumped up and sprinted out of the Great Hall without hesitation." Harry didn't know what to say.  
  
"I heard you giving orders and directing them. You did well and made the right decisions and although outnumbered you won. Afterwards you showed mercy and you made sure the Slytherin's injured were helped aswell. You showed immense bravery and skill." Moody stopped and looked at Harry for minute, "One day the ministry is going to have a very fine Auror." With that Moody strode off into the castle.  
  
Harry entered the portrait hole five minutes later to a sudden loud noise. Every Gryffindor was in the common room and they were cheering.  
  
"That was brilliant, Harry, you really put the Slytherins in their place!" said a seventh year.  
  
"Wish Fred and George were still here, we could have a party!" exclaimed someone sadly. Harry grinned and disappeared up into his dorm. Having grabbed his invisibility cloak, he stuffed it inside his robes and climbed out of the portrait hole unnoticed, when outside he threw the invisibility cloak over himself and proceeded down to the kitchens. He tickled the pair and opened the door. He had barely entered when he heard a small squeak of excitement.  
  
"Harry Potter has come to see Dobby!" Harry smiled at the elf.  
  
"Hi Dobby."  
  
"What does Harry Potter want?" Dobby asked him.  
  
"Can I have some stuff for a party, please Dobby." Immediately four house-elves scurried up, struggling under the weight of four boxes.  
  
"Two of them contain butterbeer, the other two contain food." Explained Dobby.  
  
"Thanks Dobby. Locomotor boxes." Said Harry. The boxes followed him out of the kitchen; Harry knew that he couldn't possibly get all the boxes under the invisibility cloak so instead he just hoped that none of the teachers caught him. Fortunately he managed to get up to Gryffindor tower without trouble.  
  
He gave the password and the entered common room followed by four large boxes. Everybody gave a loud cheer and rushed forward to grab some of the food and butterbeer.  
  
Harry was a hero to the Gryffindors that night and he found himself asked to retell the story several times, no matter how modest he was, he could not disguise the fact, nor would anyone let him, that he had single- handedly defended himself for ten minutes against forty Slytherins and only get hit by one spell, whereas he took out eleven of them.  
"Why did they do it, though?" A Gryffindor second year asked Harry when he was talking to Ron, Dean and Seamus.  
  
"Because," Ron explained, "Malfoy hates Harry and will risk everything just so long that he hurts Harry in the process."  
  
"But why was Davies there? What has he got against Harry?" asked Seamus  
  
"Isn't it obvious?" asked Hermione as she joined them, "Davies wants Cho and he thinks that to get her he has to get Harry out of the way and he'll try anything."  
  
"So wherever Harry goes, Davies could be waiting to attack him?" asked Ron. Hermione nodded, looking worried. Harry laughed at her expression.  
  
"I've got the darkest wizard ever wanting to kill me, and I'm supposed to be worried about Davies, calm down for Gods sake!" Nevertheless Ron and Hermione signalled to Dean, Seamus, Ginny and Neville and the six of them went into a corner and started talking in low voices occasionally looking up at Harry before looking away hurriedly when he saw them looking at them, Harry just shrugged and went and sat down on a couch.  
  
Eventually Hermione came over,  
  
"Harry," she said in a timid voice, "could you just come over here for a minute." Harry shrugged again and followed her.  
  
"Don't get angry or anything, Harry, but we've decided that we want someone of the DA to be with you everywhere you go." She said, looking at the floor and wringing her hands nervously. Harry looked at her in disbelief.  
  
"Ok, think about this one," He said slightly angrily, "Cho do you want to come to Hogsmeade with me? Oh by the way someone will have to come with us because Ron and Hermione don't want Davies to try anything. Are you thick, Hermione? Do you realise how much this will cut down my privacy with Cho? I'm sorry but I won't do it." Harry said angrily, before turning on his heel and striding away. He threw himself down on a couch furiously, how thick does she want to be? Thought Harry angrily. Ginny came and sat down next to him.  
  
"They're only worried about you." Said Ginny fairly.  
  
"Funny, they don't seemed to be quite so worried about me when Voldemort tries something." Said Harry irritably.  
  
"That's because they know that's when they need to be strongest, for your sake. They worry so much about you, they just don't show it because they need to give you strength, they don't want you to worry about them." Harry couldn't think of a reply to that.  
  
"Thanks, Gin."  
  
"Anytime." She said smiling at him. Harry reached over and gave her hug,  
  
"I wouldn't, Potter, I think I'm the jealous type." Said a voice airily. Harry grinned up at Cho standing there. He reached over and gave Ginny another hug and kissed her cheek. Ginny blushed.  
  
"I really wouldn't," said Cho casually, taking out her wand and twirling it around her fingers, "I don't like it when people annoy me on purpose." Harry grinned at her and stood up and gave her a hug.  
  
"What are you doing here, I thought people aren't allowed into any common room apart from their own."  
  
"Oh, you're not," Said Cho calmly, reaching for some crisps, "But Hermione sent me an owl telling me to meet her in the entrance hall. When she arrived she told me she was going to take me up to the Gryffindor common room, but," and here she gave Hermione an incredibly nasty glance, Hermione smirked back at her, "she insisted on blindfolding me."  
  
"Well it was only right, you're not meant to know the location of other houses common rooms." Cho shrugged and sat down next to Harry. She reached over and took a butterbeer and looked around the common room.  
  
"Quite a nice common room. But ours is nicer." She said teasingly,  
  
"You would say that." Harry retorted.  
  
"Ah, but I might be telling the truth, and you can't contradict me because you've never seen our common room."  
  
"But you can't be telling the 'truth' because whether something is nicer than something else is an opinion, it isn't a fact so you can't be telling the truth and opinions can't be true." Pointed out Harry.  
  
"I hate it when you're right and I'm wrong." Muttered Cho angrily.  
  
"You should be used to it by now." Teased Harry. Cho hit him on the arm. Harry laughed. Cho sighed and put her head in his lap, looking up at him. Harry smiled down at her and stroked her hair softly. After a while Hermione came up to them.  
  
"Is it all right if I have a word with Cho, Harry?" Harry nodded and Cho got up and followed Hermione into a corner of the common room wondering what this could be about.  
  
"Could you sit down please?" Asked Hermione, indicating one of the chairs. Cho nodded feeling slightly puzzled.  
  
"Right," said Hermione, "I don't know where to begin, but first of all, let's just get this straight, do you actually love Harry? Or are you just the girl who scored the Boy-Who-Lived?"  
  
"I can't believe you asked me that, Hermione, of course I love Harry, I love him more than life itself." Hermione smiled,  
  
"I knew you did, I just wanted to make sure," Hermione's smile disappeared, "Next, you know that Voldemort is after Harry? Well Voldemort will try to get whomever Harry loves because he knows that Harry will go after them. So, by loving Harry you are putting yourself in great danger. Voldemort, when he finds out about you and Harry will try to get you so he can get Harry. It would be safer for you not to love Harry at all."  
  
"I can't, it would be like asking me to stop breathing, I can't live without breathing, I can't live without Harry."  
  
"Finally, don't you dare hurt Harry or I will kill you and so will Ron," said Hermione, her voice stern, "I love Harry, but like a little sister, to me Harry is my big brother and if you hurt him, then I will hunt you down and I will kill you."  
  
"I have no intention of ever hurting Harry, I love him too much."  
  
"I know, now lets go and enjoy the party." Said Hermione smiling at Cho. They stood up and returned to the party. Two hours later, people gradually started going to bed.  
  
"Better take you back to the entrance hall." Said Harry half an hour later, Cho nodded reluctantly. Harry led her out of the common room,  
  
"Just don't," began Cho, Harry conjured a blindfold and tied it round her head, covering her eyes, "put a blindfold on me." She ended annoyed. Grinning Harry led her down into the entrance hall. He took her blindfold off. She turned round,  
  
"Next time don't blindfold me." She said reproachfully.  
  
"We'll see." Said Harry smirking at her. She looked at him smiling slightly. Harry leaned in and kissed her passionately. They broke apart and Harry returned up to the Gryffindor common room, expecting it to be empty. To his surprise Hermione was sitting in a corner with a textbook looking through it, she suddenly looked excited and quickly read the page. When she saw Harry walking towards her she hurriedly closed the book and without looking at him, ran up to the girl's dormitory. Harry shrugged and climbed the stairs up to the boy's dormitory.  
  
He entered and saw that everyone else was asleep. He got changed and climbed into bed. Five minutes later he was asleep.  
  
He woke up the next morning and went down to breakfast with Ron. They waited for Hermione but she didn't turn up for half an hour.  
  
"Harry," she said excitedly, "when's the next DA meeting?"  
  
"Uh, tomorrow, I think," said Harry, "why?"  
  
"No reason, thanks." She said before running out of the Great Hall.  
  
"And I thought that she wasn't mental any more." Said Ron before helping himself to his third plate of eggs and toast.  
  
If possible, the hatred between Harry and the Slytherins rose. On his way to his first class, transfiguration, a group of mean looking Slytherins, stepped out from behind a suit of armour, their wands drawn, but they slunk off, looking disappointed when they saw that Harry was accompanied by Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville all of whom were drawing their wands.  
  
Once did they manage to catch Harry on his own, when he was on his way to lunch after charms, but after a short exchange of spells, Hannah Abbott, Ernie Macmillan, Susan Bones and Justin Finch-Fletchley came to his aid on their way back after herbology.  
  
At lunch, Harry found out that several DA members had been attacked by the Slytherins throughout the day.  
  
"We'll sort it out in the meeting tonight, but just be careful until then." Was Harry's response to everyone who told him.  
  
"Come on, Hermione!" yelled Ron from the bottom of the stairs to the girl's dormitory, at ten to eight that evening,  
  
"Just coming." Came back Hermione's voice. She came down the stairs carrying two boxes, one large and one small.  
  
"Do you want me to take them?" asked Ron.  
  
"No, I'll be alright, they aren't heavy." They hurried down to the room of requirement. At eight o'clock everybody had arrived and was seated.  
  
"Ok," began Harry, "Today we- what Hermione?"  
  
"Is it all right if I just say something, Harry?"  
  
"Fine." Hermione stood up and proceeded to the front.  
  
"Ok, well, what Harry said about us being an army, we are an army and we need to show that we are an army, so I made these, I don't know if you'll like them but I thought I would try." She bent down and opened the larger box, inside were some robes, she took one out and held it up, gasps of amazement went round the room, the robe was black with a cloak attached and in the centre of the cloak, in emerald green and about twenty centimetres high and twelve centimetres wide, were the letters DA. On the front, on the top left hand side of the chest, again in emerald green and five centimetres high and three centimetres wide were the letters DA.  
  
"These robes are charmed so that when you say the incantation, indonus, followed by robus the robes, that you will choose in a second, will appear in place of the robes that you are wearing when you say the incantation, if you want to change back just say exdonus. Only touch one pair of robes because when you touch them they become yours." Everybody stood up and took a robe; soon people were standing round admiring them,  
  
"Hermione, you haven't done enough." Said Ron, sure enough, everyone but Harry had one. Hermione smiled and moved to the smaller box, bent down and opened it,  
  
"Go on Harry." Said Hermione. Harry moved to the box and picked up the robe inside. He held it up, another gasp went round the room, Harry's robe was black but where the letters of the other robes were in emerald green, Harry's were in gold and what made it most distinctive was, starting on the right shoulder, and running vertically downwards, about twenty centimetres long, was a gold lightning bolt.  
  
"You're our leader Harry, you deserve to be special. Your incantation is, indona roba and when you want to change back the incantation is exdona." Said Hermione simply.  
  
"Indona roba" said Harry, quietly, his voice unusually husky. He was immediately wearing the DA robes, they fitted him perfectly.  
  
"Where have my other robes gone?" Harry asked Hermione.  
  
"To the nearest convenient point, most likely to be your dorm in this case." Soon everyone was wearing their new robes.  
  
"Right, now you all know the tricks that the Slytherins are trying to pull, just be careful, if you have to use wands only use spells like expelliarmus and delegaste, don't use spells like slasio." Harry gave a short laugh, "And I thought we were only going to be fighting You-Know-Who, it seems the DA are at war with the Slytherins." Harry paused for a moment before continuing,  
  
"Today I thought I would teach you the burn curse, although not quite as powerful as the slashing curse, it still causes enough pain to lower an enemies guard. The incantation is 'flarus'. Get the dummies out and practice the curse." Everyone immediately moved to the back of them room to get one of the dummies, Cho walked up to Harry.  
  
"Could you go with someone else, please Cho? I need to walk round checking, this is quite a difficult curse and I don't want anything to go wrong" Cho pouted at him, grinned, and went to join Ron and Hermione.  
  
Harry started walking round the room, he noticed that Lavender was having trouble so he moved over to where she was practising with Parvati.  
  
He had barely got there before pain exploded in his scar, causing him to drop to his knees, this was the worst it had ever felt, the pain ripped through it, it burned, it stung, it ached, it just hurt. This was not like last time where he had lost consciousness, it hurt worse this time but something was forcing him to hold onto consciousness.  
  
Suddenly images of Sirius were flashing through his head, Harry first meeting him, defending him against the Dementors, speaking to him in the fireplace, Harry saw happy and sad images. Not only was Harry in pain, he was feeling sick, sadness was overwhelming him, he lost the will to fight, the will to survive. Malicious laughter filled his head, terrifying him, hurting him, he struggled against it but he couldn't get free, it was still there, tormenting him.  
  
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Harry screamed, unaware that he had screamed out loud. He continued to struggle. His strength was fading, he lost the will to fight and without the will to fight he could no longer fight the images, the pain, the fear. He was slowly subjecting himself to them, he could no longer remember what happiness felt like, so strong was the feeling of sadness that was enveloping him. He was almost gone, he could no longer fight. It was over, he had lost.  
  
Just as suddenly as the images had started they stopped, he could see clearly again. He saw Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Moody looking at him, Dumbledore had his wand raised and pointed at Harry.  
  
Harry was panting heavily, the images had stopped but the fear, sadness and sickness was still there, overwhelming him, threatening to drag him down into darkness. He needed to get away from it, he needed a way out, happiness would not work, he needed a new pain. He took his wand and pointed it at his arm,  
  
"Slasio" he whispered. A violent pain shot through his arm, overpowering the sickness and fear that he had felt, Harry leaned back against the wall and held his left arm, which was bleeding freely. He was losing blood fast and was starting to feel light-headed, but he didn't care, this was ending the sadness and terror that he had felt only moments before.  
  
Professor McGonagall and several of the DA took out their wands to perform the healing charm, but Professor Dumbledore held up his hand to stop them,  
  
"But Dumbledore, he needs to stop bleeding!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall in surprise.  
  
"Don't you think this is hurting me too, Minerva? But you don't know what Harry's just been through, he needs to be distracted or it will just overwhelm him." Said Dumbledore sadly; he left Harry alone for a few more minutes before bending down in front of him and healing him.  
  
"Harry, can you hear me?" Dumbledore asked him urgently. Harry nodded, but he was light-headed and it hurt to do so.  
  
"Minerva," ordered Dumbledore sharply, "Go and ask Madam Pomfrey to come here and bring a blood replenishing potion." Professor McGonagall nodded and hurried out of the room. Five minutes later she returned with Madam Pomfrey. Madam Pomfrey immediately knelt by Harry and made him drink the blood replenishing potion. Immediately Harry felt better and the light headed feeling was disappearing. After a few minutes Harry was all right, he looked around the room, everyone was looking at him extremely worried. Several of the girls had been crying and Harry could see it was taking all of Cho's self-control to stop her flinging herself on him. Harry stood up, shakily and walked over to where Cho was. Wordlessly he wrapped his arms around her and held her while she sobbed.  
  
"Oh God, I thought I'd lost you Harry!" she sobbed into his arms.  
  
"Shh, it's all right, I'm here, I'm ok." They stayed like that for a few minutes,  
  
"Harry, I would like you to come to my office, please." Said Dumbledore quietly. Harry nodded and let go of Cho; he turned to the DA,  
  
"This meeting will continue tomorrow." He said before turning to follow Dumbledore out of the room.  
  
"Harry!" yelled Cho desperately, "Don't go, don't leave me!" Harry turned back and strode towards her, his primary concern was Cho, his second concern was whatever Dumbledore had to say.  
  
Harry held in his arms for a moment before drawing back, he reached into the neck of his robes and he pulled out the necklace with half a heart on it that Cho had given to him for his birthday. She took out hers and they put them together, the crack disappeared and Harry Cho became one word.  
  
"Still here, always here." He said before following Dumbledore out of the room. Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Moody and Harry proceeded to Dumbledore's office.  
  
"Right, Harry," said Dumbledore when everyone was seated, "Can you tell me what happened?" So Harry explained what had happened in the room of requirement. He explained the terrible feeling of sickness and fear he felt.  
  
"After the images stopped, I just felt that I needed to get away from the fear, so I decided that the only way was to cut myself."  
  
"I understand, Harry."  
  
"But why? Why did it happen?" Asked Harry, Dumbledore sighed,  
  
"I'm not sure, but what I can tell you is that it was Voldemort, that's how you were able to stay conscious, he was keeping you conscious. I think he was trying to break down your defences, I'm afraid you will have to continue with occlumency. Voldemort could do this at any time so it is vital that you are able block him out."  
  
"A couple of questions, sir, how did he manage to get into my mind? I thought there were defences around Hogwarts that stopped him from being able to. Also could I have died from it? And why did it stop?"  
  
"Starting from your last question, Harry, I stopped it. No you couldn't have died, the reason you were conscious is that Voldemort was keeping you conscious, eventually he wouldn't have been able to keep you conscious and you would simply become unconscious, although you held on much longer than many full grown wizards would have." Dumbledore paused before answering the last question, "It is as I have feared, the ancient wards of Hogwarts are failing," McGonagall gasped and Moody growled at these words and Harry felt sick, "Voldemort could attack at any moment, it is certain that he will when he realises that the wards are failing, his realisation would have been speeded up by tonight's episode." Harry's sick feeling intensified; he had sped up the fall of Hogwarts, for a moment he couldn't breathe, he wanted to run, he wanted to hide, he wanted it all to end.  
  
"Don't you dare blame yourself for what happened tonight, Harry, there was nothing you could have done to prevent it." Said Dumbledore firmly. The sick feeling lessened slightly.  
  
"Please do not repeat what I have told you to anyone, Harry." Said Dumbledore.  
  
"I'm sorry, Professor, but I can't do that," said Harry, he heard an intake of breath from Professor McGonagall, "I'm the leader of an army, Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix is fighting Voldemort, well so are we, I can't say I won't tell the DA what is happening, I won't tell anyone outside the DA and neither will anyone else in the DA, but the DA have a right to know and I'm going to tell them because when Voldemort attacks Hogwarts, Dumbledore's Army is going to be there fighting him and we won't be caught by surprise." Said Harry firmly. Dumbledore smiled sadly,  
  
"You can tell the DA, Harry, but when Voldemort attacks I can't allow you to fight him."  
  
"You can't stop us either, you told Voldemort that there are things worse than death, but there is little worse than knowing you could have done something to help prevent something horrific, and not done it, and then the horrific thing happens, and then knowing that you might have prevented it. No, you can't stop the DA defending Hogwarts." Harry held Dumbledore's gaze as he said this. Dumbledore smiled at him,  
  
"As much as I dislike it, I will not try and stop you, and even if I did," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "I get the impression that you would just disregard it and fight anyway."  
  
"You're right, we would." Said Harry seriously.  
  
"And now, Minerva, could I trouble you to escort Mr Potter along to bed, Harry I will be teaching you occlumency and your first lesson will be tomorrow at six o'clock tomorrow."  
  
"Come along, Potter." Said Professor McGonagall. She and Harry left Dumbledore's office. At the bottom of the steps she stopped him,  
  
"You are a very brave young man, Potter and I have no hesitation in saying that your father and Sirius would be very proud of you, as am I." She flashed one of her rare smiles before walking off.  
  
A/N Right another chapter done, a darker chapter then most of the others but this is where the plot really starts, from now on updates are going to be every Friday. I am not going to be able to update on Friday the twenty first because I am going to be on holiday for four days and I won't have access to a computer, I will try and get updated on the Wednesday before but I can't promise it.  
  
Sheen Rox: I'm English.  
  
Thanks to all my reviewers so far, especially LogicalRaven and Anime- Master7. Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing!  
  
Fireboy. 


	12. Occlumency

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 12: Occlumency.  
  
At five to six, the next day Harry sprinted along the corridors towards Dumbledore's office, having only just remembered that he had occlumency.  
  
"Chocolate frogs," he managed to gasp out, clutching a stitch in his side. The door opened and Harry ran up the staircase,  
  
"Sorry, Professor." Harry panted,  
  
"That's alright, Harry, you still have one minute before you become late." Said Dumbledore, amusement dancing in his eyes. Harry grinned.  
  
"Take a minute to get your breath back, then we'll began." Harry sat down on a chair opposite Dumbledore. After a minute Harry nodded, he was ready to start. Dumbledore stood up as did Harry.  
  
"Ready?" asked Dumbledore, Harry nodded, his mouth was dry, he already knew what he was going to see.  
  
"Legilimens" said Dumbledore, images flashed before his eyes, Sirius falling through the veil, Dumbledore arriving at the department of mysteries, fighting Bellatrix, crying for Sirius on his bed, Cho and him kissing when they met at the Burrow, 'no,' said a voice in Harry's head as the image of Cho and him became clearer, 'get out, that's my memory, not yours, get out, that's for me alone.' With a final push the room became clear, Harry was on his knees, his head in his hands and sweat was pouring down his face.  
  
"Did you, um, did you see the image of..' Harry began, a blush creeping up his cheeks,  
  
"Of you and Miss Chang? I'm afraid I did, Harry," said Dumbledore a note of apology in his voice, "But you did well, however you wasted time and energy shouting, do not focus your energy on speaking, empty your mind of all emotion and focus your energy on repelling me upon entry. I apologise but I am going to try and access more memories about Miss Chang and yourself, I fully respect that they are your memories and I apologise, but it is vital that you learn to repel me." Harry nodded, it didn't matter so much that Dumbledore was going to try to view his most private moments, however if it was Snape teaching him he would certainly of refused to let him.  
  
"Are you ready Harry? Legilimens." It was like someone had opened a book filled with memories of Cho and Harry, private memories flashed before Harry's eyes and Harry was filled with anger that someone, it didn't matter that it was Dumbledore, an outsider was witnessing the moments that Harry cherished the most, the memories that were for him only, he was desperate to shout out, desperate to tell the intruder to get the hell out, but he controlled the urge. Instead he focused all his energy and pushed, the intruder resisted, but Harry focused his energy like a beam and pushed harder and managed to force the intruder out.  
  
The room swam back into view and to Harry's immense surprise he was still standing, his face was set in a determined look and there was sweat pouring down him but he was still standing. He looked up at Professor Dumbledore. He was regarding Harry calmly.  
  
"That was excellent Harry, now upon entry clear your mind of all emotion, you will find it easier to repel an intruder if all your energy is focused on repelling the intruder. You got angry that time, with good reason I hasten to add, but had you emptied your mind off all emotion then you would have found it easier to resist me." Not once did Dumbledore's voice take a critical tone, it remained calm and encouraging, Harry nodded.  
  
"Right lets try again. Legilimens." Again private memories of Cho and him flashed before him. Harry couldn't help it, he quickly became angry, knowing that he would not be able to repel Dumbledore as easily, he decided not to try and repel him but to first master his anger. He seemed to open another door, deeper into his mind.  
  
Dumbledore felt a jolt of surprise as Harry willingly allowed him deeper into his mind, wondering what Harry was up to, he pushed further into Harry's mind. He noticed that Harry was not trying to repel him, Dumbledore pushed further and further into Harry's mind.  
  
As Dumbledore pushed deeper into his mind, Harry became angrier, he fought to control that anger. Harry then realised with a jolt of shock and anger that Dumbledore had found his way into Harry's most private and treasured memory of Cho and him yet, the half hour they had spent in the room of requirement. Harry watched, with horror, him and Cho kissing passionately, Harry's hands slowly sliding down Cho's back under her shirt to rest just above her bottom, Cho's hands were sliding down Harry's chest and under his shirt, stroking the area around his navel. Harry fought even harder to control his anger, he had nearly done it.  
  
Dumbledore felt a blush crawl up his cheeks as he witnessed Cho and Harry in the room of requirement, managing to get it under control, he relentlessly pushed further into Harry's mind.  
  
Harry finally managed to get his anger under control, summoning all of his energy he pushed, he pushed so hard and suddenly that it caught Dumbledore by surprise and the old man had no chance to resist and was forced out of Harry's mind. As soon as he regained full perception Harry swore under his breath and turned away, he felt horrified at what he had done, he had let Dumbledore see the one memory that was for him and Cho only, he shouldn't have let Dumbledore that far in, he should have tried to resist earlier, he'd been such a fool.  
  
"Harry," said Dumbledore softly and apologetically, "I'm sorry Harry, that was your memory, as soon as I began to see that I should have pulled back, forgive an old man's foolishness."  
  
"There's nothing to forgive, I should have resisted earlier, I shouldn't have let you get that far," said Harry his voice hoarse from emotion, he threw himself to his knees, tears filling his eyes, "What have I done? That was the one memory that was solely for Cho and I only."  
  
"I'm sorry Harry, that shouldn't have happened, I shouldn't have seen that." Harry didn't answer.  
  
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you not resist me earlier on?" asked Dumbledore, Harry stood up,  
  
"Because I had to learn to control my anger, so I focused all my energy on controlling my anger instead of repelling you and I let you deeper," said Harry anticipating the Headmaster's next question, "because eventually you were going to push that deep and if I couldn't master my anger at that level then I would be unable to repel you and it would be much easier to let you that deep, master my anger then repel you, than have you force that deep and me unable to repel you." Explained Harry.  
  
"That was extremely wise of you Harry, next time you should be able to repel me without much difficulty, now do you want to stop there or continue?"  
  
"Continue please, sir." Said Harry. Dumbledore levelled his wand at Harry.  
  
"Legilimens." Harry saw the images flash before his eyes, however after three seconds his anger was under control and the battle of the minds begun, Harry focused all of his energy in a beam and pushed but Dumbledore resisted, the images became blurred so neither person could see them. Harry lowered his attack a little, Dumbledore's attack faltered as it found less resistance, as Dumbledore's guard fell a little, Harry summoned all of his energy and shoved, Dumbledore's defence was lowered as his attack had faltered and was easily brushed aside and Harry forced Dumbledore out of his mind.  
  
"That was excellent Harry, at night concentrate on emptying your mind of all emotions and next time you should be able to repel me upon entry, this will do for tonight." Holding his hand up against Harry's protests, Dumbledore shook his head,  
  
"That will do, you will be very tired and you will have used a lot of energy on this and do not forget that you have that DA meeting later on tonight." Harry nodded. Dumbledore leant down and opened one of his drawers, he took out two boxes of chocolate frogs.  
  
"That," he put one of the boxes down on the desk, "is for doing so well, and that," he put another of the boxes down on the desk, "is to replenish the lost energy." Harry smiled,  
  
"Thanks Professor."  
  
"That's quite alright, Harry, now off you go." Harry smiled and turned round and left Dumbledore's office eating the chocolate frogs hungrily.  
  
He returned to the common room to find Ron and Hermione waiting for him anxiously.  
  
"How did it go?" asked Hermione nervously. Harry grinned broadly at her.  
  
"Excellent, I can empty my head of all my emotions and I can now force Dumbledore out of my head after about thirty seconds, in which, because I'm trying to force him out and he's resisting, he can't see anything because all the images are blurred." Hermione beamed at him.  
  
"That's brilliant, Harry!" exclaimed Hermione,  
  
"Where'd you get the chocolate frogs from?" asked Ron, Hermione rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at him,  
  
"Ron!" she hissed.  
  
"I mean, that's great an' all, mate, but where did you get the chocolate frogs?" Hermione muttered something in which the words 'Ron,' 'greedy' and 'pig' were audible. Harry grinned at Ron.  
  
"Dumbledore gave them to me because I was doing so well. Here." Harry threw one to Ron, who caught it.  
  
"Cheers, mate." Ron ripped open the box and attacked the chocolate frogs vigorously. Harry laughed at Hermione's look of disgust. Less than a minute later the entire box had been devoured. Ron looked at it wistfully. Laughing loudly Harry tossed the rest of the second box to him, Ron caught it, grabbed a couple of chocolate frogs and stuffed them in his mouth, before grinning at Harry.  
  
"Come on," said Hermione, her voice filled with disgust, "let's get to the room of requirement." Ron grabbed another fistful of chocolate frogs, stuffed them in his mouth and threw the empty box into the fire before following Harry and Hermione out of the common room.  
  
They entered the room of requirement and waited for the rest of the DA to arrive, by eight o'clock everyone had arrived and was seated, looking up at Harry.  
  
"Indona Roba," he said before starting, he was immediately wearing his DA robes, everyone else followed his example, "Right, this is really important so listen well, I am about to tell you something that Dumbledore told me yesterday after my scar hurt, but you must not repeat this to anyone outside of the DA," began Harry, his voice serious, "the reason my scar hurt was Voldemort was showing me things that made it hurt. He was able to do this because the ancient wards of Hogwarts that have protected the castle for so long are failing," Horrified gasps went round the room, everyone knew what this meant, "This means that Voldemort could attack at any moment, Dumbledore thinks that he will attack a week from now. This is what we have been training for, nobody has to fight but I am going to be there fighting him, along side Dumbledore." Somebody spoke up, the most unlikely of people,  
  
"We are the DA, this is what we have been training for, we're going to be fighting with you Harry, you are our leader, we are your army, we trust you." Said Neville, his face pale, but his voice was determined, everybody nodded in agreement.  
  
"I'm not going to lie to you, a lot of people will die in this battle, it is likely that some of us will die, it is most likely that I will die. So I just want to say this, thanks, all last year when Umbridge was making my life hell, and when most of the wizarding world had turned their backs on me, you were there, the DA made my life worth living." More then one face had tears on it and Harry felt a lump in his throat.  
  
"And if we do die, then we die knowing we did a wizards job, an adults job, we died fighting for what we believed in, fighting for what is right and let no man say that the DA were cowards." Harry looked at them for a minute, by now tears were flowing down most people's cheeks.  
  
"We have a week to prepare, so let's get to it," Everyone stood up, "What I thought we would do is we would divide into pairs and fight each other, using any spells you want to, in the forthcoming battle the Death Eaters aren't just going to be disarming you, spells like slasio will be used, so practice using them and blocking them now do that for the first half an hour, I'll explain what we'll do in the second half when the first half an hour is up. Ok, let's go" Immediately people started dividing into pairs. Cho jumped up and moved towards Harry smiling but Harry turned his back on her. Cho's smile faded.  
  
"Harry?" she said surprised at his reaction.  
  
"Hermione, go with Cho, I'll go with Ron." Said Harry, still not looking at Cho. Hermione ran over looking puzzled,  
  
"What?" she asked confused. Harry didn't answer but walked off, his heart breaking that he had to do this, by now Cho was crying freely,  
  
"What have I done?" she sobbed.  
  
"I doubt you've done anything, I'll speak to him afterwards." Said Hermione, Harry moved over and stood opposite Ron,  
  
"What was that all about, mate? Why aren't you with Cho?" asked Ron curiously.  
  
"None of your business." Growled Harry, he was hurting, but he had betrayed her trust. Ron looked taken aback.  
  
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you, mate." Apologised Ron hastily. Ron was immediately forced to create a shield charm as Harry sent a burn curse at him. Ron fired three slashing curses at Harry in retaliation, instead of conjuring an advanced shield charm, Harry threw himself to the right, sending a binding spell at Ron, not expecting this, Ron did not react quickly enough and was hit by the spell. Harry waited while Ron struggled against the invisible ropes. When Ron was free the both stood opposite each other. By now Ron was angry and he sent out a mixture of stunning spells and slashing curses at Harry, Harry dropped and lay on the floor while the curses flew over his head and hit the opposite wall.  
  
"Expelliarmus." Said Harry pointing his wand at Ron from his position on the ground. Ron felt his wand fly out of his hand, grinning, Harry caught it deftly and chucked it back to him. Ron swore,  
  
"Is there anyway I can beat you?" he asked angrily. Harry's grin widened.  
  
"Nope." Ron smirked as an idea came to him; he sent four slashing curses at Harry, fired in quick succession. As he predicted Harry simply created an advanced shield charm, Ron counted to eight before sending another load of slashing curses at Harry, Harry's shield charm deflected the first load but then faded and before Harry could create another one, six of Ron's slashing curses had hit him.  
  
"Damn, this hurts." Moaned Harry through clenched jaws. Ron laughed at him,  
  
"Shut up, it isn't funny you prat, at least I didn't use spells that actually hurt on you." Growled Harry, half jokingly, half serious.  
  
"Ah, but you told us to use them." Harry swore good-naturedly. Cho ran up to him,  
  
"Here, let me heal those." She said, taking out her wand. However Harry turned away from her.  
  
"Ginny, could you heal these for me please?" he said.  
  
"What have I done?" yelled Cho, in tears. Finally Harry turned to her. She could see in his eyes that this was hurting him as much as it was hurting her.  
  
"It's not what you've done, it's what I've done." Cho was puzzled.  
  
"What have you done that's making you like this?" she asked.  
  
"Dumbledore saw it." Said Harry sadly and ashamed.  
  
"Out! This isn't for us to hear!" barked Ron. Respectful of their privacy, the DA left the room of requirement to give Harry and Cho some privacy.  
  
"Saw what?" asked Cho. Harry looked away.  
  
"When I was doing occlumency, I let Dumbledore deep into my mind, where all my most private and treasured memories are, the memories that are for me only. One of these memories was the time we spent in the room of requirement after the meeting last week. I didn't have to let him that deep, I could have forced him out earlier."  
  
"So why did you let him that far in?" asked Cho.  
  
"Because eventually he would force that far in and I figured that if I let him in it would be easier to force him out when he did get that deep." Explained Harry, still determinedly not looking at her.  
  
"And so you feel as if, as if you have betrayed me, betrayed my trust by letting Dumbledore see that." Said Cho slowly. Harry nodded glumly. Before he realised what had happened, Cho had thrown herself on him and was holding him tight, sobbing onto his shoulder,  
  
"I don't care, this, you ignoring me, is hurting me more than the fact that you let Dumbledore see that memory, in a way you had to, you have to stop Voldemort from entering your mind, and to do that you have to be good at occlumency. Voldemort won't just use surface memories, he will go deep, so you have to be able to repel people that are deep in your mind, and I would rather Dumbledore see it, then Voldemort who would use it against you." The thing that astonished Harry most was the fact that she said Voldemort's name. Harry looked up and saw Ron looking through the glass of the door; he looked on the floor and saw an extendable ear under the door.  
  
Harry saw Ron give him the thumbs up before opening the door. Harry grinned at him from where he held Cho,  
  
"You hypocrite!" Ron shrugged unconcerned,  
  
"I'm your best friend, I have to be allowed some privileges." Harry laughed at him. He noticed that Hermione was shooting him disapproving glances every so often, and lots of other people were giving him envious and angry glances. However Ron seemed indifferent to these.  
  
"I think we'll leave it here for tonight." Said Harry, several people groaned, but moved towards the door anyway. Harry and Cho waited until everyone was gone. Cho noticed that she had blood on her robes,  
  
"Oh, I forgot that you were hurt!" she exclaimed, she instantly healed his wounds.  
  
"Thanks." Said Harry.  
  
"Come on, let's make a new memory, one that Dumbledore hasn't seen." Harry smiled at her.  
  
Half an hour later Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room to find exactly the same people waiting for him,  
  
"Save it Ron," said Harry not looking at him, holding up a hand as Ron opened his mouth to say something, "you did it last week, it's boring now." He said before walking up the boy's staircase. Ron closed his mouth and everyone laughed at the look of disappointment on his face. Mumbling angrily to himself, Ron followed Harry up the staircase to the boy's dormitories, leaving everyone laughing in the common room.  
  
The next day Harry was heading down to breakfast when Dumbledore stopped him.  
  
"I just want to tell you that your next occlumency lesson will be tomorrow at six o'clock." Harry nodded and continued into breakfast.  
  
After lessons Harry and Cho decided to go for a walk around the grounds by themselves, they had been walking in silence for a few minutes before Cho spoke.  
  
"There really is going to be a battle isn't there?" Harry nodded.  
  
"Yes, Dumbledore is sure there will be." Cho thought for a minute before speaking again.  
  
"In the battle you're going to find Voldemort straight away, aren't you?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why?" Cho demanded harshly, Harry knew she sounded harsh because she was worried, he thought for a minute, trying to decide if he should tell her about the prophecy. Eventually he decided against it.  
  
"I'm not going to tell you, but there is a reason."  
  
"Tell me!" Cho demanded.  
  
"NO!" yelled Harry angrily, instantly he softened, "no, I can't."  
  
"Aren't you afraid of death?" asked Cho tearfully. Harry thought about the question before answering.  
  
"I'm surrounded by death, so many people close to me have died, I've seen people die, I've come extremely close to dying, so how can I be afraid of death? It's just there, like eating or breathing." Harry sighed, "but yes, I'm afraid of death."  
  
"So why do you put your life at risk, like rescuing the philosophers stone or going to find Voldemort?" Again Harry thought,  
  
"Because someone has to do it or Voldemort will win." He said quietly, by now Cho was sobbing loudly.  
  
"But why you?" she yelled hysterically. Harry opened his mouth to answer but out from behind a bush stepped Malfoy, Davies, Nott, Goyle and Crabbe.  
  
"Well, well, well, it's Potty and Chang." Said Malfoy, sneering at them.  
  
"Go to hell, Malfoy." retorted Harry angrily,  
  
"I'll see you there first." Malfoy said, taking out his wand, "but wait," Malfoy lowered his wand and pretended to think, "that's a good thing for you, you'll get to see your precious Godfather, again."  
  
"Get lost." Said Harry but without much conviction, Malfoy grinned as he sensed he had discovered Harry's weak spot.  
  
"You failed him, Potter, he needed your help and you failed him. How's it feel to be a failure?" The fight had already gone from Harry; he looked down, his eyes filling with tears.  
  
"Harry! It's not true! Don't listen to them, it's not true!" Cho yelled holding onto him and trying to put herself between him and Malfoy.  
  
"Oh, but it is, Potter's Godfather came to help him, and when he got into trouble, Potter couldn't be bothered to help him, Potter failed him," he looked past Cho at Harry, "I wonder how he felt, knowing that his Godson couldn't be bothered to help him, didn't care about him, he probably felt betrayed, hurt." Malfoy sneered, enjoying seeing Harry being beaten by him. Cho grabbed Harry and pulled him away, Malfoy's malicious laughter following them.  
  
When they were far enough away from Malfoy, Cho stopped Harry.  
  
"Don't listen to them Harry, you know it's not true, they're just trying to hurt you." Harry didn't respond he just turned and walked away, looking like he did when he was suffering from depression. Cho ran to catch up with him,  
  
"Harry!" she said as she caught up with him, without a word and not even looking at her, Harry turned round and pushed her hard, she fell to the ground hard and looked up surprised and hurt, tears in her eyes. She was even more hurt when she saw that Harry had just walked of without a second glance at her. She sat on the ground and cried for five minutes before forcing herself up and heading towards the castle.  
  
The next few weeks were weeks of sheer joy for the Slytherins, they knew how to get back at Harry, Malfoy had lost no time in telling the slytherins how to hurt him. The entire school saw the famous Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, broken and weak, he wouldn't talk, he rarely ate and when he did it was only enough to keep him alive. There were dark rings under his eyes and he dragged his feet.  
  
Harry was walking towards the Great Hall for lunch when a group of eight Slytherins stepped out in front of him. They began taunting him but quickly became angry when they didn't get a response out of him. The biggest, a burly seventh year, drew back his fast and sank it, as hard as he could, into Harry's chest. Harry dropped to his knees, winded. The seventh year then kicked Harry hard in the face; Harry's face became extremely bloody, as blood poured from his nose and mouth. The Slytherin boy drew back his foot about to kick Harry again when a furious voice yelled out,  
  
"BACK OFF! GET LOST BEFORE I MURDER YOU ALL!" Yelled Ron as he, Hermione, Ginny and Cho ran towards Harry all three of them looking livid; they rained spells onto the Slytherins as they ran towards Harry.  
  
"STUPID SLYTHERIN SCUM, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE BEFORE I MURDER YOU ALL!" Screamed Ron furiously. Spells were emitting from his wand like one continuous beam of light. Every one of the Slytherins had been hit by at least five or six spells. None of them had enough time to reach their own wands to fight back.  
  
Professor Flitwick left his classroom and, seeing what was going on and why, quickly turned the other way and walked off without a look back.  
  
A/N Right, I wanted to get this chapter up before the four day holiday, hope you enjoyed it, the next chapter will be posted on Friday the 27th.  
  
Ok, this fic will probably be about 15, 16 chapters long. There will probably be a sequel, let me know in your reviews if you think I should do a sequel. Thanks to all my reviewers, especially LogicalRaven and Anime- Master7.  
  
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing!  
  
Fireboy. 


	13. The Final Preparations

PLEASE READ THIS NOTE - I have decided to do a trilogy called "Dark" This fic is the first part, the next part will be called "The Second Darkness" and the final part will be called "The Light at the End of the Tunnel." All three of them will be Harry/Cho.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 13: The Final Preparations.  
  
Through a dim red haze, Harry was vaguely aware that the beating had stopped; he weakly heard angry voices and grunts of pain. He felt two people lift him up and half drag, half carry him in what he realised was the direction of the hospital wing. The pain soon stopped as Harry slipped into unconsciousness.  
  
Madam Pomfrey was sitting in her office when she heard angry voices at the door to the hospital wing, she left her office and gasped at the sight that met her eyes, Ron and Ginny were supporting an unconscious Harry who was covered in blood.  
  
"What happened?" she asked horrified.  
  
"Slytherin scum." Growled Ron. Madam Pomfrey indicated that they lie Harry on the nearest bed. When they had done so Madam Pomfrey turned to Cho.  
  
"Miss Chang, could you go fetch the Headmaster?" Cho nodded and sprinted along the many corridors towards Dumbledore's office, tears were forming in her eyes; Harry hadn't spoken to her in the past three days and more than once she wondered if he had stopped loving her, but one thing was certain, she, Cho Chang, had not stopped loving him.  
  
She reached the gargoyle outside Dumbledore's office when she realised she didn't know the password, she faintly remembered Harry telling her it a couple of days ago, Fizzing Whizbees? No that wasn't it, then she remembered,  
  
"Chocolate frogs!" she ran up the staircase, tears streaming down her face, she ran through the door of Dumbledore's office. Inside were Dumbledore, McGonagall and Moody.  
  
"Miss Chang! What's wrong?" asked Dumbledore. But Cho couldn't get the words out, she was sobbing too much.  
  
"Its do with Potter, isn't it?" asked Moody gruffly. Cho nodded and managed to choke out two words.  
  
"Hospital Wing." Without another word the three Professors strode out of Dumbledore's office and hurried towards the Hospital Wing.  
  
All three of them gasped loudly when they saw Harry, not one bit of skin could be seen on his face, it was covered in blood from his nose and mouth, Madam Pomfrey lifted up his shirt to reveal a large purple bruise.  
  
"What happened?" asked Professor McGonagall shocked.  
  
"Slytherins started tormenting Harry and when they didn't get a response out of him one of them started hitting and kicking him." Said Ginny sadly.  
  
"This has got to stop or Harry's going to get very seriously hurt." Said Hermione concernedly. Madam Pomfrey was hurrying in and out of her office giving Harry various potions and doing various charms. Cho was standing at the end of Harry's bed looking heartbroken with tears streaming down her face. Eventually Professor McGonagall took he outside.  
  
"What else is wrong." Professor McGonagall asked, she had been a teacher long enough to know when something was troubling a student deeply and she strongly suspected that this had something to do with Harry. At this Cho broke down completely.  
  
"He's stopped loving me, I love him so much it feels like my heart will burst from it, I can't love him enough but he's stopped loving me!" she sobbed loudly, Professor McGonagall, did something extremely rare and became completely un-McGonagall like, she smiled at Cho,  
  
"I have been Harry's head of house for six years and so I know him well, and I can tell you he hasn't stopped loving you."  
  
"How do you know?" asked Cho.  
  
"Because he walks around with a dreamy look on his face, he doesn't concentrate as well when he's in class and the way he looks at you, you are his heart, his soul. He's just having a hard time at the moment." Professor McGonagall stood up straight and her smile vanished,  
  
"Now, stop thinking these silly thoughts and either run along or come back into the Hospital Wing." Cho turned around but as she did so she flashed a grateful smile at Professor McGonagall and could have sworn McGonagall smiled back.  
  
Hermione was the only one who noticed the change in Cho, her walk was calm and she was not so agitated, she had a faint, contented smile and a far-away look in her eyes. Cho moved and stood by the side of his bed.  
  
"Excuse me, Miss Chang." Said Madam Pomfrey. Madam Pomfrey took out her wand and gave it a wave over Harry, a second later he woke up. He groaned and tried to sit up but he couldn't because of the bruise on his stomach.  
  
"Hold on Mr Potter." Said Madam Pomfrey, she waved her wand over the bruise and it disappeared instantly.  
  
"What happened?" he asked through clenched teeth, Madam Pomfrey could heal the wounds but the pain lingered for some reason.  
  
"Same old story mate, Slytherins." Said Ron, Harry gave a short laugh.  
  
"Becoming routine, huh?" He said.  
  
"Yep" agreed Ron.  
  
"My daily schedule- get up, have breakfast, get attacked by the Slytherins, lessons, attacked by Slytherins, lunch-"  
  
"Please don't joke about it, it scares me." Said Cho anxiously.  
  
"I'm sorry," said Harry, instantly becoming serious, "I didn't mean to scare you." Cho leaned in and he hugged her tight.  
  
"I hate it when you joke about getting hurt, I love you too much, I don't like it when you get hurt." Said Cho, tears forming in her eyes.  
  
"Shh, it's alright. I'm ok." He hugged her fiercely, not wanting to let her go, only feeling whole when he was holding her; reluctantly he let go of her.  
  
"Who were they?" asked Professor McGonagall. Harry shook his head sadly.  
  
"It doesn't matter, it'll keep happening whatever you do." Said Harry without a trace of fear or remorse, as if he was stating the simple truth and he just had to accept it.  
  
"But they have to be punished!" said Professor McGonagall astonished.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore gave a lot of them two weeks detention and it still keeps happening," Said Harry, "What more can you do?"  
  
"Expulsion, suspension, if we expel or suspend this group it will serve as a warning, as a deterrent to others."  
  
"And you will end up eliminating the House of Slytherin." Said Harry finally.  
  
"He's right you know, Minerva." Growled Moody.  
  
"Now if you don't mind, I would like to speak to Harry alone." Said Dumbledore calmly from the back. Everybody nodded and left, Cho hugged him intensely before leaving. Dumbledore moved a chair to beside Harry's bed.  
  
"I do not want to tell you this in your current state but I feel it is vital that you know as soon as possible."  
  
"Hold on Professor." Interrupted Harry, he got out of bed and looked around on the floor, sure enough there was an extendable ear sliding underneath the door. Grinning to himself Harry pointed his wand at it.  
  
"Diffindo." The extendable ear was split in half. They heard an indignant 'oi!' from outside, Harry and Dumbledore both laughed. Dumbledore stood up and put an imperturbable charm on the door. As he sat down again his face became serious.  
  
As I was saying, Harry, I don't want to tell you this but I feel I have to. I know when Voldemort is going to attack Hogwarts." A feeling of dread filled Harry and his throat became dry.  
  
"He is going to attack in two days time. We have two days to prepare for the battle that begins the second war, the battle that could determine the fate of the good side. The side opposed to Voldemort, for, if we lose, then Voldemort will most likely win the war." The feeling of dread intensified and, for one moment, threatened to drown Harry. It passed quickly and Dumbledore continued.  
  
"The ministry is sending some Aurors to help us fight Voldemort and there is to be a meeting in my office in an hours time and I wish you to attend. Just remember Harry; this could be the first and final battle in the war for the good side." And with that the old man turned and swept out of the Hospital Wing. Five minutes later Madam Pomfrey came and told Harry that he could go.  
  
Three quarters of an hour later Harry ran into the common room.  
  
"Ron, Hermione, there's a meeting in Dumbledore's office and I've got to attend so come on." Ron and Hermione stood up and followed him out of the common room.  
  
"If he just wants you to go, then why are we coming as well?" gasped Hermione as they ran along the corridors towards Dumbledore's office.  
  
"I'll explain once we get there." Was all he said. They reached Dumbledore's office. Harry paused before giving the password.  
  
"Indona roba." Ron and Hermione followed his example. With them wearing their DA robes and Ron and Hermione behind him, Ron to his right and Hermione to his left, Harry gave the gargoyle the password and strode into Dumbledore's office. The first thing that struck the people inside was that Harry looked ten years older, a combination of determination etched into his face and his DA robes gave him an impression of being older.  
  
Inside were Dumbledore and all the teachers, and, to Harry's surprise Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt and, Ron barely managed to stifle a gasp, Arthur and Molly Weasley and a man Harry didn't recognise. Several eyebrows were raised at the sight of Ron and Hermione. Harry knew he would have to explain.  
  
"Ron and Hermione are the co-founders of the DA, they're my lieutenants, they have a right to know as much as I do. You either have all of us or none of us, the DA are going to be fighting Voldemort in two days time so my lieutenants have a right to hear what is going to be said." Everybody nodded except for Mrs Weasley.  
  
"But you can't fight, I won't allow it, you're too young." She exclaimed.  
  
"But I wasn't too young to rescue Ginny from the basilisk. It is not how old you are; it is the experience you have. Ron, Hermione and I all have experience and we are going to be fighting Voldemort along side you." Harry received several nods of agreement at this  
  
"Ron, you are my son, in will definitely not allow you to fight." continued Mrs Weasley.  
  
"Mum, Ginny will be fighting aswell, you can't stop us, I trust Harry, I trust him with my life, where he goes, I go with him, where he fights, I fight with him, if he dies, I die with him."  
  
"Same with me." Said Hermione. Harry was touched by the support and the words of friends. People looked at the trio curiously, by age they were children, by maturity, they were adults.  
  
"Molly, they have made up their minds and you can't change them." Said Dumbledore calmly. Mrs Weasley nodded but she looked far from happy.  
  
"Harry," continued Dumbledore, "This is Stilas Rackon, he is the head of the Aurors who will be coming to help defend Hogwarts."  
  
"How many Aurors does the ministry have? How many are coming to help?" asked Harry.  
  
"There are about two thousand Aurors in Britain, the ministry can spare eight hundred to help fight." Answered Rackon, his voice deep yet it showed he had confidence in himself and his abilities.  
  
"The Order of the Phoenix will be fighting aswell," Added Lupin, anticipating Harry's next question he continued, "There are about one hundred and fifty people in the Order and about thirty are Aurors."  
  
"The thirty Aurors in the Order, are they part of the eight hundred the ministry are sending?" Harry asked. Lupin shook his head.  
  
"No." He said.  
  
"Right," said Harry, "There are the twenty-one members of Dumbledore's Army who will be fighting so we will have around nine hundred and seventy people to fight. How many is Voldemort going to send?"  
  
"Voldemort is going to send around two thousand Death Eaters." Answered Dumbledore shortly.  
  
"Any Dementors?" asked Harry.  
  
"No" replied Dumbledore. Harry turned to Stilas Rackon.  
  
"What is the tactic of Death Eaters in battle." But Moody interrupted.  
  
"I'm impressed Potter, you're thinking like a leader. You are going to make a fine Auror one day, don't you agree Stilas?" Rackon was looking at Harry curiously.  
  
"I do," He agreed, he paused for a minute before continuing, "They try to overwhelm you with curses, they don't want to give you a chance to fight back." Harry nodded.  
  
"It's obvious what we do then, keep producing shield charms, use their own spells against them."  
  
"I'm glad that you're on our side, not theirs." Said Tonks admiringly. Harry smiled.  
  
"Thanks." He looked at everyone in the room, wondering how many would survive the battle.  
  
"Well, that's all I need to know, so I thank you and goodbye." With that he turned and strode out of Dumbledore's office followed by Ron and Hermione. Nobody spoke for a minute after Harry had left.  
  
"It's strange," said Professor McGonagall wonderingly, but I felt like he had more authority then we did." Nobody spoke, nobody needed to because they all felt the same.  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione were running back towards the Gryffindor common room to get the coins. They had decided to call a DA meeting right away to discuss what they had heard in Dumbledore's office.  
  
Half an hour later everyone was in the room of requirement looking up at Harry nervously. Harry quickly told them what he had learnt in Dumbledore's office, a minute later the faces that had been a mixture of eagerness and nervousness quickly changed to horror.  
  
"We are going to be outnumbered two to one by Death Eaters!" exclaimed Zacharias Smith in astonishment and dismay. Slowly Harry nodded. He had expected groans but everyone just looked more determined.  
  
"Okay, this is your last chance, if anyone wants to escape from the battle; this is your last chance." Nobody moved.  
  
"Right," Harry began, "There are a couple of things I want to tell you that are very important so listen well. First of all we need to know when Voldemort and his army will arrive. Starting tomorrow we are going to be look-outs. You will be placed in strategic positions around the grounds. If you see them arrive send up blue sparks. The people, who are next to you, but about a hundred metres apart, will send up red sparks, and then the people next to them will send up red sparks, until it gets to the people who are standing outside of the doors will run in and get Dumbledore. Next," Harry sighed, he didn't want to tell them this, "in the battle if Voldemort is there, I am going straight to him and I will fight him. No-one else has to come with me."  
  
"We'll come with you Harry, but why are you going straight to him?" asked Lavender. Harry sighed again; he knew he would have to tell them about the prophecy.  
  
"There is a prophecy made about Voldemort and I, it basically says that either I kill Voldemort or be killed." Gasps of horror went round the room.  
  
"What happens if you are killed?" asked Ron, his voice shaking.  
  
"Then the good side is destroyed forever." Harry said bluntly. More gasps of horror.  
  
"I know I should probably say something inspiring now, something that will urge you on, stop you from giving up hope, but I can't. All I can say is this; Fight well in the battle, fight hard. For it is not only Hogwarts we are fighting for, it is the fate of the wizarding world. We are Dumbledore's Army and, if we have to, we'll go down fighting. Never forget what you are fighting for, never forget that it is good against evil, never forget that you are fighting the forces of darkness and never forget this; united we stand, divided we fall." And thus Harry fell silent after saying this, and the whole of the room was silent, they wouldn't forget what they were fighting for, the forces of hell were about to be unleashed on them and the DA were determined to be found worthy of fighting them.  
  
A/N I'm very sorry! I know I said this chapter would be up on Friday but first I fell ill and then my teachers piled a ton of work on me. Sorry!  
  
I know this chapter is shorter than most of the others but this is only an in between chapter, it's meant to fill you in on the battle. The next chapter is going to be the battle and then there will be the final chapter of this fic. The next part in the trilogy will be up sometime in January. I'll explain why at the end of this fic.  
  
Thanks to all my reviewers so far. Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing.  
  
Fireboy. 


	14. The Battle

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 14: The Battle.  
  
After leaving the DA room, Harry, Ron and Hermione headed towards Dumbledore's office to tell him about the DA keeping watch. They entered Dumbledore's office to see Dumbledore's sitting at his desk. The old man looked up,  
  
"What can I do for you Harry?" Harry explained his plan to Dumbledore, Dumbledore nodded.  
  
"That would be very useful Harry, I admit I forget about guards, thank you." Harry bowed to Dumbledore and strode out of the room.  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione returned to the Gryffindor common room and Ron and Hermione, too worried and tired to talk, went straight to their dorms and fell asleep. Harry, however, stayed up, drawing up a guard duty roster. Half the DA would be on duty for two hours at a time, then, when the two hours were up; the other half of the DA would take over. When the roster was completed  
  
Harry woke up at eight o'clock, as it was saturday there were no lessons. The three of them left the common room and proceeded down into the Entrance Hall. Waiting at the bottom of the steps was the entire DA. Harry quickly told them about the roster. He read out the ten people who were to be lookouts first. They would be working in pairs and they would be placed at five strategic places around the school, one pair looking east, one pair looking north, one pair looking south, one pair looking west and one pair standing outside the door to the Entrance Hall so they could run and get Dumbledore.  
  
"Have you had breakfast?" All ten of them shook their heads.  
  
"Go and have something to eat, then." Said Harry. They nodded and ran off into the Great Hall. As the rest off them followed them, more slowly, Hermione and Cho came up to Harry looking worried.  
  
"Harry, can we have a word with you? Privately?" asked Hermione tentatively. Harry nodded and followed them, wondering what they wanted.  
  
"Harry," said Hermione when they were out of earshot of the others, "I'm sure you've thought about this and we have but I don't think the others have thought about it, won't the Death Eaters just fire Avada Kedavra at us, as it can't be blocked they could end the battle in just five minutes, and we would all be dead." Hermione's voice became hysterical at the end with panic and fear. Harry sighed, he had thought about this problem.  
  
"I don't know what to do, I'll ask Dumbledore about it." Said Harry.  
  
"What's there to ask about? There's nothing we can do about it." demanded Cho harshly. Hermione looked at her, astonished at her harshness. Harry however knew it was because she was worried about him.  
  
"I don't know, maybe Dumbledore has a plan." He said wearily. Cho regretted being so harsh to him.  
  
"I'm sorry, I'm just worried about you." She said sadly.  
  
"I know, it's all right." Harry held out his arms to her. He hugged her briefly before walking into the Great Hall. He proceeded straight to where Dumbledore was sitting. The old man looked up at him and smiled.  
  
"How can I help you Harry?" Harry wasted know time in telling him the problem. To Harry's amazement and slight relief there was still a twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes,  
  
"As unbelievable as it may seem, only a very few Death Eaters know how to perform the killing curse, those who are closest to Voldemort. Out of the two thousand that will arrive tomorrow only about fifteen to twenty will actually be able to cast the spell." Harry felt a wave of relief flood through him.  
  
"Then how will the rest of them kill us?"  
  
"The same way we will, overwhelm them with spells that hurt, hurt them till they die from the sheer pain." Harry nodded. He was barely able to stop himself from running over to the Ravenclaw table. He walked to over where Cho was sitting with her back to him. He knelt down and put his arms around her waist. Ignoring the glances they were getting from the rest of they hall Cho turned her head to look at him. Harry put his mouth beside her ear and said very quietly so that only she could hear him.  
  
"It's alright, only about twenty of the Death Eaters will be able to perform the killing curse." Cho beamed at him and threw her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck. Harry smiled down at her, love filling the startling green eyes of his.  
  
Roger Davies stared at the pair, deepest loathing on his face. Suddenly he could stand it no longer. He took out his wand, jumped up and sent three slashing spells at Harry. Two hit him on the shoulder and one hit him on the cheek. Every member of the DA jumped and pointed their wand at Davies. To their astonishment Harry waved them down.  
  
"Jealousy will get you nowhere Davies." Said Harry, his voice calm yet dangerous.  
  
"Who says I jealous?" growled Davies, his voice barely above a whisper, but in the silence everybody could hear it.  
  
"I do." Said Harry.  
  
"What do you know? You know nothing."  
  
"I know nothing, huh? I'll tell you what I do know, I know how to curse you from here to next year."  
"We'll see." Said Davies. With that he unleashed a torrent of spells on Harry. Calmly, almost lazily, Harry sent up an advance shield charm. The spells bounced uselessly off of it and rebounded towards Davies who was forced to drop to the floor. As Davies got to his feet Harry called out to him.  
  
"Stop playing childish games and fight like you intend to hurt." Davies swore at him and let of another stream of curses. Again Harry deflected them. The duel continued, Harry was constantly moving, never in the same place long enough to be hit, taunting Davies, mocking him. Whilst he was picking himself off of the floor for the fifth time Davies smiled to himself. He knew just how to hurt Harry. He stood up and pointed his wand at him, but at the last second flicked it towards Cho and sent a curse that only dark wizards would know. Caught by surprise Cho had no time to get up a shield charm and was promptly hit by the curse, she let out a tiny 'oh!' of surprise before falling to the floor, a large gash on her stomach.  
  
Harry watched all this in horror. Eventually hatred overtook surprise,  
  
"DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH? 'COS YOU'VE JUST SIGNED YOUR OWN DEATH WARRANT!" He roared at Davies. He then produced a spell so powerful that the people who were about a metre and a half away from him felt their hair stand on end as it sped pass them. Davies was struck by the spell and was flung thirty metres across the room and hit the opposite wall. His arm was broken by the impact. He tried to get up but found he couldn't; Harry had one foot on his chest and his wand was pointing at Davies's heart.  
  
"Give me a reason to and I swear I will kill you." Harry said, then he felt hands pull him off of Davies and he saw Professor Dumbledore and several of the teachers standing there. Dumbledore alone looked calm, but the rest of the teachers looked furious.  
  
"I suggest you come along to my office Harry. You too Mr Davies." Said Dumbledore.  
  
"No." answered Harry shortly, and with that he pushed passed them and ran over to Cho. He knelt down by her side. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. Harry performed the healing charm on her, it didn't work, he tried again, nothing. He sprinted back to where Davies was lying, he shoved aside Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, grabbed Davies by the collar and shoved him up against the wall.  
  
"What have you done to her?" he demanded angrily. Davies whimpered in terror.  
  
"Harry, calm down. Madam Pomfrey will sort her out." Dumbledore said kindly, suddenly Harry felt tired, he was tired of all this hate, all this pain, all this war, all this fear. He let Davies drop and strode out of the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione jumped up and followed him. They caught up with him outside in the grounds. Hermione healed Harry's cuts in an instance.  
  
"The last thing you need right now is a lecture from me, but if you want to talk Ron and I will always be here for you." Ron nodded in agreement.  
  
"Always here." He repeated. They turned and walked away from Harry, leaving him deep in thought.  
  
At nine o'clock that night Harry hurried along to the hospital wing. He entered the room and saw Cho sitting up reading a book. Harry breathed a sigh of relief before grinning.  
  
"Typical Ravenclaw, never could pass up an opportunity to read." Cho smiled up at him. She put down the book and he sat on the end of the bed.  
  
"How are you?" He asked.  
  
"I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey wants me to stay in case there are any after effects of the spell. I'm allowed out at eight o'clock tomorrow morning." They spent another hour talking before Harry stood up to leave.  
  
"No! Don't go, we may not be alive after tomorrow, I need to spend as much time with you as I can." Harry nodded, he flicked his wand and suddenly he was wearing his pyjamas. Cho smiled as he got into bed with her. He wrapped his arms around her and she lay down facing him, her face in the crook of his neck. Harry rested his chin on the top of her head.  
  
And that was how Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey found them the next morning. Madam Pomfrey let out a gasp and Dumbledore had an amused twinkle in his eyes.  
  
Harry woke up and saw Madam Pomfrey looking horrified and Dumbledore smiling at them. He cursed under his breath, how was he going to explain this.  
  
"It's not what it looks like, we just needed to be together." Dumbledore let out a small chuckle.  
  
"Don't worry, Mr Potter, I believe you." Cho woke up and pressed closer to Harry.  
  
"Love you." She murmured as she woke up, she looked up and blushed when she saw Dumbledore. At that point Ron and Hermione ran into the hospital wing.  
  
"Harry there- HOLY COW!" yelled Ron when he caught sight of Harry.  
  
"Ron calm down, nothing happened!" exclaimed Harry loudly.  
  
"So you didn't, you know,"  
  
"No." said Harry firmly.  
  
"Phew," said Ron looking thoroughly relieved, "I'm too young to be a godfather." Harry and Cho got up and half an hour later were down in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Harry looked at his watch, nine o'clock, he decided that he should get the ten members who were on lookout duty. He ate the rest of his breakfast quickly, then went and got everyone.  
  
Harry and Hermione were standing out in the grounds by the doors of the entrance hall, ready to go get Dumbledore if they saw red or blue sparks.  
  
"Harry," began Hermione tentatively, "Why didn't you come and tell me or Ron you were going to spend the night with Cho?" Harry thought about this.  
  
"Because I wasn't sure what your reaction would be, I didn't know if you would try to stop me." Hermione looked shocked and a little hurt,  
  
"What you and Cho do is none of my business, I have no right to stop you from spending the night with her. I don't lecture you about everything." She said defensively.  
  
"Calm down. It wasn't only that, Cho didn't want me to leave her."  
  
"But you would have done, wouldn't you, if she asked you to." Said Hermione after a minutes silence,  
  
"What, left her?" said Harry, Hermione blushed and looked away.  
  
"You know that's not what I meant."  
  
"Yes, I would have." Said Harry finally, blushing deeply. There was an embarrassed silence.  
  
Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbott were looking towards the east, keeping an eye out for any signs of someone apparating.  
  
Suddenly a black dot appeared about two miles away, then more followed. Soon there were about five hundred and more were arriving every second.  
  
"Hannah!" he exclaimed. She turned round and gasped,  
  
"Quick, send up the blue sparks!" Justin thrust his wand into the air, but he hesitated, if he did it then there would be no going back, for a moment he was tempted to ignore it, as if it would go away, suddenly his head cleared and he hesitated no longer. A stream of blue sparks erupted from his wand. This was it, the army of hell had arrived.  
  
"Harry." Said Hermione quietly. Harry looked to where she was looking and swore. Red sparks could be seen from where Padma and Parvati Patil were.  
  
"C'mon, let's go get Dumbledore." He said. They turned and ran towards the Great Hall. Harry threw open the double doors, a loud crash filled the Great Hall. Everyone fell silent. Harry looked directly at Dumbledore.  
  
"It's begun, Voldemort's army has arrived." The entire hall erupted in screams of horror. Dumbledore silenced them with several large, orange firecrackers from his wand.  
  
"Where?"  
  
"The east." Answered Harry promptly.  
  
"Harry, take your soldiers outside, the Aurors will be joining you shortly." He said, Harry nodded. He surveyed the Great Hall.  
  
"Let's go." He said, the remaining members stood up, said the incantation to change into their DA robes and followed Harry out of the hall.  
  
Five minutes later the DA were gathered where Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbott were. By now most, if not all, of Voldemort's army had arrived.  
  
"Let's send them a welcoming message." Growled Harry. He thrust his wand into the air and muttered a few words. A second later emerald green letters began forming, the slowly formed words. The message read,  
  
GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM, VOLDEMORT, HELL, AND TAKE YOUR PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR AN ARMY WITH YOU.  
  
FROM HARRY POTTER AND THE DA.  
  
A couple of minutes later similar words formed, this time in deepest black.  
  
DON'T GET CONFIDENT, POTTER, BEFORE THE DAY IS OUT YOU AND THAT OLD FOOL DUMBLEDORE WILL BE DEAD AND HOGWARTS WILL BE DESTROYED.  
  
Harry grinned when he saw that, he thrust his arm into the air and said a few more words. Again emerald green letters appeared in the air.  
  
WAKE UP VOLDEMORT, YOU'RE DREAMING. Even if they were only words everyone could tell that they were filled with scorn. The DA looked at Harry in admiration, and suddenly they all felt confident, this was the Harry Potter that was going to lead them to victory, this was the Harry Potter that would eventually kill Voldemort.  
  
Harry smiled to himself, He noticed Hagrid walking towards them, but to Harry's surprise, Hagrid was carrying his crossbow and an arrow bag with about thirty quarrels in it. As well as that he had a large sword in a scabbard by his side and a large, round shield slung on his back. He also had a helmet on his head.  
  
"What's that?" asked Ron curiously when Hagrid arrived. Hagrid gave a low chuckle.  
  
"It's me battle gear ain' it. As I can' do magic and I'm gonna fight then I 'ave to use me battle gear." Hagrid drew the sword. It was about a metre and a half long and about seven centimetres wide. "Fines' giant forged sword, admittedly it's more of a short sword to them but it will do as a long sword fine fer me," he swung the shield off of his back, it was a metre in diameter and had an orange phoenix in the middle. "Goblin forged, this," Hagrid patted the shied, " same wi' this helmet." Hagrid leaned down and whispered to Harry, "Dumbledore got me this stuff when I joined the Order." Hagrid stood up again.  
  
"I'd rather jus' use me crossbow, I 'ave to get close to use me sword an' spells are more likely to affect me the closer I am, but eventually the arrows are gonna run out." Hermione looked thoughtful for a minute.  
  
"Give me your arrow bag." She said. Hagrid looked surprised but handed it over anyway. Hermione performed a tricky little charm. The quarrels glowed blue for an instant and then resumed their normal colour.  
  
"That was an infinity charm," she said as she gave Hagrid the arrow bag, "for the next four hours you won't run out of quarrels." Hagrid looked extremely grateful. They all looked over to the east. The black dots seemed to be moving into a formation.  
  
"Be another hour yet." Said Hagrid quietly, he looked sideways at Harry, "you fightin' then?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Yer Dad and Sirius would be extremely proud if they could see you now." Someone gave a shout and Harry spun round, several hundred black robed men were running towards them. Hagrid's crossbow came up into his shoulder and Harry raised his wand. Where the hell were the Aurors?  
  
"Easy, we're Aurors." Said one man, Harry recognised him as Stilas Rackon. Harry then noticed the scarlet line, a few centimetres wide, running from the right shoulder down to the waist. The rest of the Aurors arrived and began forming a long line about two or three ranks deep. Harry noticed with a jolt of horror that they were in the centre, they were going to be in the thickest of the fighting. Half an hour later another group of people arrived, dressed in blue robes with an orange phoenix above their heart. Harry recognised these people as the Order of the Phoenix. Amongst the Order of the Phoenix were the teachers. This was it, Harry thought, this was the army that would send Voldemort back to hell or die trying.  
  
"Where is Harry Potter?" Harry heard someone call out. Harry sent up a stream of green sparks. The entire Order ran towards him. Harry soon found himself standing next to Lupin.  
  
"Hi Moony."  
  
"Hello Harry, how are you?"  
  
"Fine now but I dunno how I'll be in an hour." Lupin gave a short laugh.  
  
"No-one does Harry, whether they're in a battle or not." Suddenly someone gave a shout, the mass of black clad people were slowly moving towards them.  
  
"Stay alive, Moony." Said Harry simply.  
  
"You too Harry." Harry turned to the DA.  
  
"Let's give them hell. Because that's what they deserve. This is going to be a battle like the ones told in legends, the battle of good against evil. So let's make this battle legendary." A loud cheer went up after this and not only from the DA.  
  
The Death Eaters slowly advanced and soon there was only about two hundred and fifty metres between the two armies. With only two hundred metres between them the Death Eaters stopped. There was silence for a few minutes then,  
  
"Kill them all." Said a high-pitched voice that could be none other then Voldemort. Then the spells flew.  
  
At least thirty Death Eaters were killed in the first minute. The air was filled with screams of pain and anger, beams of light were flying everywhere, Harry stunned a Death Eater as he led the DA to the left flank, where the Aurors were most hard pressed, Harry saw a Death Eater fall to the ground in a spray of blood, a quarrel in his throat. He spun round to see Hagrid following them, and instantly regretted doing so, he felt a burning pain on his left shoulder. A deep cut had formed there. Another spell flew towards him but he deflected it.  
  
The battle had only been raging for a few minutes and already the Aurors on the left were about to break. As he got closer he saw that Bellatrix Lestrange was leading the Death Eaters, hatred as he had never known before filled him and he growled to the DA  
  
"Lestrange is mine." He opened his mouth to slasio her throat, Harry knew that doing so would kill her, but before he could the Aurors turned and fled.  
  
"Bastards," growled Ron, "Bastards have taken a bribe."  
  
Harry heard Bellatrix give a triumphant scream and he sprinted towards her. The DA stopped between the Death Eaters and the fleeing Aurors. They turned to face the triumphant Death Eaters. Harry thrust his arm into the air whilst the DA tried to stem the rapid flow of Death Eaters, a fountain of green sparks erupted from his wand. The fleeing Aurors turned round and saw Harry Potter standing there looking defiant as hell while his troops fought off a third of the enemy army. The sight installed a new courage in them and they gave a hearty cheer and sped towards the enemy army. By the time they arrived several of the DA were on the floor but not one was dead. As the Aurors sprinted past them Harry, Hermione, Parvati, Padma and Lavender went round healing the injured DA members.  
  
Suddenly Harry spotted Bellatrix duelling with an Auror. Taking careful aim, he aimed at her throat and sent a slashing curse at her. Harry watched the curse speed through the air and strike Bellatrix in the throat. Time seemed to slow down for him, he watched her slump to her knees, her hand clutching her throat. She choked once, twice and then fell to the ground dead.  
  
The Death Eaters paused, confused, their leader had fallen, the Aurors took advantage of their confusion and pushed harder, Harry ducked as two jets of light sped towards him, out of the corner of his eye he saw Parvati fall to the ground a large gash forming on her stomach.  
  
"Ginny!" He yelled, Ginny sprinted up alongside him, "Parvati" She nodded and ran to heal her, Harry turned around and saw Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot lying on the floor.  
  
"Drop!" He yelled, "drop!" The DA did so and Harry crawled on his stomach over to where Hermione and Ron were lying, spells flying overhead and screams of pain echoing in his ears. Hermione was pale and Ron was sweating heavily, but both looked determined.  
  
"Listen," he said urgently, "I can't be everywhere at once, I can't see everywhere at once, you are my lieutenants, if you see anyone get injured get someone to help them, ok?" They nodded. Harry jumped to his feet and led the DA towards the enemy, they had only been fighting for a few more minutes when the Death Eaters broke, it happened incredibly quickly, one minute both sides were firing spells at each other and then the next the Death Eaters were fleeing in panic. Most fled towards the centre where the fighting was thickest but a few fled towards where they had arrived. The remaining Aurors, about two hundred, gave a cheer and began pursuing the Death Eaters who were fleeing towards the centre. Harry waited to allow the DA a chance to rest; suddenly Ron gave a shout of alarm,  
  
"They're breaking, they're bloody breaking!" Sure enough in the centre, the Aurors were being forced back further and further, they were just about to break and Harry was just about to lead the DA to help when he saw a large group of the Order and Aurors, led by Dumbledore, McGonagall and Rackon sprint towards the centre. Harry alone knew that had the reinforcements led by Dumbledore arrive a few minutes later the battle would be lost as Voldemort would have placed most of his best troops in the centre and they would have quickly overrun the flanks and then Hogwarts. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. The battle had been raging for just over half an hour and they had already come extremely close to total defeat.  
  
Harry led the battle-weary DA towards the centre. He then saw something that made him speed up dramatically. Hagrid was on his own surrounded by Death Eaters who were two or three ranks deep. His crossbow had obviously been broken as he had his shield on his left arm and was swinging his sword in great arcs that cut down two people in every swing, but for every Death Eater that fell five more took their place. Harry watched two Death Eaters be completely beheaded by Hagrid; they swayed for a full minute before falling to the ground. Harry ducked two jets of light that were speeding towards him but didn't stop running  
  
Harry could tell that Hagrid wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, more than half the spells that hit him were doing damage and the sword swings lacked the power that they had a few minutes ago. The DA fired spells at some of the Death Eaters that surrounded Hagrid, they managed to get past and then they rallied around Hagrid and helped fight the remaining Death Eaters that surrounded them.  
  
"Repairo." Said Hermione pointing her wand at the broken crossbow at Hagrid's feet. Hagrid sheathed his sword, slung his shield onto his back and picked up the crossbow. He loaded it in less than ten seconds, a job that would have taken an ordinary human five minutes, and fired at a Death Eater, the man was snatched backwards by the force of the quarrel in a shower of blood.  
  
Soon the DA and Hagrid were fighting for desperately, fighting for their lives. They were completely surrounded and there was no way out. The DA were beginning to tire severely, their reactions were slower. They were beginning to take casualties. Pretty soon less than half of them were still fighting. Both Lavender Brown and Ginny Weasley were bleeding heavily and Harry was sure that if they didn't break out soon then they would die. If they didn't break out soon then they would all die.  
  
Then he knew what to do, he thrust his arm into the air and fired a stream of green sparks into the air. By doing this he attracted the attention of most of the Death Eaters surrounding them, most of their spells were directed at him. Ron and Hermione stepped in front of him to protect him. They defended him for a few seconds before Ron fell to the ground unconscious, Michael Corner took his place.  
  
Lupin and several other members of the Order were fighting alongside several Aurors in the centre, about fifty metres to the right of Harry. He glanced to the left and his eyes widened in horror when he saw the green sparks surrounded by Death Eaters.  
  
"Harry's in trouble!" He yelled. He led thirty Aurors and twenty members of the Order to Harry's aid. The Death Eaters were unprepared for this sudden counterattack. As they turned to fight the Aurors and the members of the Order, Harry and the remaining five members of the DA of the DA healed and revived the other fifteen members of the DA. When everyone was healed they darted forward and attacked the Death Eaters who were fighting Lupin and the members of the Order and the Aurors. Caught between two groups the Death Eaters were quickly killed or injured. Seeing that Harry was safe, Lupin led the people that had come to Harry's aid back to the main battle.  
  
However Harry didn't follow. He had put it off enough, he had to go and look for Voldemort. He scanned the battlefield, both sides were locked in vicious combat and there were spells flying everywhere. Hagrid and a small group of the Order were fighting a larger group of Death Eaters lead by an unmasked Dolohov. Harry was about to lead the DA to their aid but he saw a group of Aurors, led by Moody, already sprinting towards them, jets of light flying out of their wands. Harry turned to the DA,  
  
"I'm going to look for Voldemort, if you want go and join Lupin, tell him I'm off to look for Voldemort." Nobody moved, Harry started to lead them towards the thickest of the fighting; they had only been running for a few minutes before Harry felt something hit his right leg, he stumbled. He could feel blood against his robes. He turned and saw a group of about fifty Death Eaters led by Lucius Malfoy running towards them. Luna, Cho and Terry Boot were lying on the floor. The DA turned and met the attack of the Death Eaters with anger and deadly enthusiasm. Lucius headed straight for Harry.  
  
Lucius sent a killing curse at Harry, Harry knew that he was fighting a lethal enemy. He threw himself to the right and fired a stunning spell as he did so. Malfoy blocked it with ease and responded by unleashing a barrage of slashing and stunning spells at Harry's head, Harry dropped to the floor and responded with some slashing spells. To his immense satisfaction all of them hit and Malfoy bore three deep cuts.  
  
"You'll pay for that Potter."  
  
"Can't, don't have any money on me." Harry retorted. He opened his mouth to let loose another load of spells but before he could he felt his wand fly out of his hand and, he looked to his left and he saw a Death Eater standing there, his wand pointed at Harry. Ron promptly stunned the Death Eater and then cut his throat using slasio. Malfoy smirked at Harry and opened his mouth,  
  
"Avada-" but he didn't finish, in his side was a crossbow quarrel, he choked up some blood and fell to his knees, he choked up more blood, looked at Harry in surprise and slumped to the ground.  
  
Harry didn't bother checking whether he was dead, he looked to his right, where the bolt had come from, Hagrid, Lupin, Arthur and Molly Weasley and another ten members of the Order running towards them. Disregarding this Harry turned to the battle between the DA and the Death Eaters, the DA were fighting valiantly. Less then thirty Death Eaters were still fighting whereas only five more DA members had been injured, He ran over to where Ron and Hermione were fighting four Death Eaters, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott and Zacharias Smith were particularly hard pressed on their left.  
  
"Go help Smith and that lot over there." He barked to them, jerking his head to the left. Knowing that this was not the time to argue. Ron and Hermione ran towards Smith.  
  
"Think you can take us on alone Potter?" sneered one of the four who had been fighting Ron and Hermione.  
  
"No," answered Harry, "I think I can kill you alone." Expecting to beat Harry easily one of the Death Eaters fired a simple stunning spell at him. Harry blocked it easily, not expecting Harry to block it the Death Eater was too surprised to get up a shield charm, he dropped to the ground unconscious. Harry quickly used slasio on his throat, killing him. The other three, astonished by the speed and the efficiency with which Harry killed their companion were more vicious, they tried to overwhelm him with spells, Harry immediately produced an advanced shield charm and threw himself to the right where he unleashed his own barrage of spells. When the beams of light had all disappeared, Harry saw that one of the Death Eaters was lying on the floor badly injured and the other two had fled. He immediately ran to join Ron and Hermione.  
  
The members of the Order smacked into the Death Eaters right and a quick exchange of spells followed with the Order and the DA forcing the Death Eaters back. The fight only lasted a few more minutes before the Death Eaters, already disheartened by the injury of their leader, which put him out of the fight, fled in panic. Before Harry could stop him one of the Death Eaters grabbed Malfoy and fled after him his comrades  
  
The DA and the Order were just about to rejoin the main battle when a great cheer went up. Harry turned quickly and saw the remaining Death Eaters fleeing in panic, the victorious Aurors and remaining members of the Order, led by Dumbledore, pursuing them. The Battle for Hogwarts was over, they had won.  
  
The darkest forces that hell could muster had been unleashed upon them and the DA had stood tall, fought hard and had been found worthy of fighting them.  
  
A/N I hope the battle lived up to your expectations, let me know if it did or didn't. I know it was a bit of an abrupt ending, all will be explained in the next chapter. That will definitely not be the last battle in the trilogy. In your reviews let me know if I should kill Lucius Malfoy. Right now he is only wounded. This was the second to last chapter in this fic, the final one will be up soon.  
  
I know I called a few Death Eaters 'leader' this is not because I'm forgetting that Voldemort leads the Death Eaters, it's because Voldemort is like the General, Malfoy, for example, is like a major or a captain, it's the majors and captains that actually lead the troops in battle. 


	15. The Aftermath

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.  
  
A Candle in the Dark.  
  
Chapter 15: The Aftermath.  
  
Harry stared in disbelief at the fleeing Death Eaters; he could not quite believe that the battle was over. He felt someone tugging at his arm; he turned round to see Hermione standing there, wild eyed with a deep cut on her left arm.  
  
"We did it Harry, we survived." All Harry could do was nod dumbly. The DA were jumping around cheering, several of them came up and shook Harry's hand. The DA, children, had fought some of Voldemort's best troops and not one of the DA had been killed.  
  
Hagrid ran up to Harry, tears streaming down his face and into his beard, and enveloped him in a bone-breaking hug.  
  
"Yeh did it Harry, yeh beat them, Sirius and James would have been proud of yeh." Harry led the DA over to where the Professors were standing with Stilas Rackon, all around them the Aurors moved from body to body, checking the identity of the person.  
  
Harry ignored the pain in his leg and shoulder as he approached the teachers. Professor Dumbledore saw him coming and smiled.  
  
"I'm glad to see you survived." He said.  
  
"It was a close call a couple of times," admitted Harry. He surveyed the sea of dead, "It was a bloody battle, there's a lot of dead." He pointed out.  
  
"About one thousand five hundred dead Death Eaters, three hundred and fifty dead Aurors, fifty dead members of the Order. None of the teachers were killed," Dumbledore looked sad, "How many of the DA were killed?" He asked quietly. Harry let the question hang, adding to the tense feeling.  
  
"None." Everyone around them looked surprised,  
  
"None?" asked Professor McGonagall, looking as though she hardly dare believe it, "none?"  
  
"None, not one DA member was killed." Harry said.  
  
"But, how is that possible? You are only students." exclaimed Professor McGonagall  
  
"It is possible-" began Harry,  
  
"It is possible," interrupted Ron, "because we have the best goddamn leader. Even when we were surrounded by the Death Eaters, with no obvious way out, I wasn't scared, why not? Because I had faith in him, I knew he would get us out, and he did. I won't deny it, the DA are good, we are trained to fight, and we have been trained by the best, so we can fight, but it's no good being able to fight if you just throw yourself into a battle without any thought of what you are going to do. You would be killed immediately. But Harry led us, and what's more he led us well. No, he led us bloody well. So we were able to fight and kill and survive." The DA nodded in agreement, Harry was touched by the support of his friends and the DA.  
  
The teachers looked surprised at this speech. But Moody spoke up.  
  
"They're right, Potter is a good leader. I was watching him. When the Aurors on the left broke, Harry rallied them and they went on to beat the Death Eaters. The DA and him stood up to seven hundred Death Eaters and that takes a hell of a lot of guts. Sometimes those guts can only come from the leader, he held back the Death Eaters and rallied three hundred Aurors and commanded the DA all at the same time, and that takes a hell of a lot of will power." Stilas Rackon nodded.  
  
"Mr Potter is better than most of the leaders we have in the Aurors." There was a lump in Harry's throat, and he felt close to tears.  
  
"I will not pretend for one minute that it was solely me in the DA who fought Voldemort. Everyone in the DA deserves praise as much as I do." Dumbledore smiled at them,  
  
"I am proud of you all, I cannot explain the pride that I am feeling for you all right now. All I want to say is, thank you. Thank you for being willing to give up your lives for Hogwarts."  
  
"Thank you for letting us." Whispered Harry. And with that he bowed to the teachers turned around and strode away.  
  
Lupin hurried over to Harry, after hesitating for a second he pulled Harry into a hug.  
  
"James, Lily and Sirius would never forgive me if you were killed." Harry grinned up at him.  
  
"I would never forgive myself if you were killed, I'm glad you survived, Moony." Lupin gave a short laugh before turning to Ron.  
  
"Nobody in your family was killed." Ron breathed a heavy sigh of relief.  
  
"Was anyone we know killed?" asked Hermione worriedly. Lupin smiled.  
  
"No, but Tonks and Kingsley will have to spend some time in St Mungo's but they'll survive." It was a strange feeling, standing there amongst the dead bodies, having survived a huge battle.  
  
"Bellatrix Lestrange is dead." Harry said to Lupin. Lupin looked surprised,  
  
"How do you know?" he asked.  
  
"I killed her." Lupin smiled.  
  
"I'm glad, if anyone deserved to kill that bitch it was you."  
  
"Lucius Malfoy is dying." The DA and Lupin looked surprised at that so Harry continued, "I was duelling with him and I had just hit him with three slashing curses and he was just about to use Avada Kedavra on me when Hagrid shot him with a quarrel from his crossbow. It hit him in the side, I don't know if he died or not." Ron let out a low whistle.  
  
"Draco Malfoy is going to love you and Hagrid for that one." Harry laughed.  
  
"He is, but I'm not worried about that." Lupin looked at the sea of dead Death Eaters.  
  
"This is going to hurt Voldemort." He said. Ron looked at him.  
  
"How?" Lupin gestured with his hand towards the dead.  
  
"His best lieutenants were in that battle, the Lestranges are dead, Lucius Malfoy is dying, Rookwood, Dolohov, Macnair, Trawson, Viscaar, Delaton, are all dead, several others are badly wounded, most of which will die, his best men were fighting in this battle and most of them are dead. It took him ages, at least a year, to gather an army to begin his takeover of the wizarding world and in about two hours it was virtually destroyed. Now he has to gather a fresh one and that's going to take a long time."  
  
"Not enough have died to avenge Sirius," growled Harry.  
  
"Maybe so, but enough have died to keep the wizarding world safe for a while. In general the battle was a complete victory."  
  
"Not for me it wasn't, I didn't get to fight Voldemort." Harry said.  
  
"Harry, even the best made plans can go awry in battle. The main thing is you survived."  
  
"So did Voldemort."  
  
"For now that doesn't matter, his army was destroyed." Harry nodded.  
  
"Is Voldemort going to attack Hogwarts again?" Lupin looked thoughtful.  
  
"You'll have to ask Professor Dumbledore." Harry nodded his thanks, gave Lupin one last hug, turned and hurried towards the teachers. As he got closer he saw Madam Pomfrey with the. As he approached, she hurried towards them.  
  
"Let me heal those for you, Mr Potter."  
  
"Heal the DA first, I need to speak to Professor Dumbledore." Harry walked up to the Headmaster.  
  
"Sir, is Voldemort going to attack again?"  
  
"To be truthful, I'm not sure. Madam Pince is searching the library for any book that will tell us how to get the wards back up. If she fails then yes, if she succeeds, then no." Harry nodded,  
  
"Thank you." At that point Madam Pomfrey came up and healed his wounds. Harry turned and walked back to the DA.  
  
He looked at them for a minute before speaking,  
  
"I just want to say thanks. Thanks for being there, thanks for fighting along side me."  
  
"We were proud to fight alongside you and we always will be, and, if need be, we would be proud to die for you." Seamus said, his voice filled with emotion.  
  
"You all fought well, I have never been so proud of anyone. You fought the best Death Eaters Voldemort had, and you won. You fought bravely, hard and you came out on top. And no man can say that the DA were cowards. You were willing to die for what you believed in, something that a lot of full-grown wizards wouldn't do. You don't know how much it meant to me to see you fighting alongside me. Fighting for Hogwarts, fighting for wizardkind, fighting for what is right. You showed Voldemort that the DA is an army, an army that is to be reckoned with, an army that is to be feared by him." Harry had to close his eyes for a minute as tears threatened to overwhelm him,  
  
"We gave Voldemort what he deserved, we gave him hell. And we did it on behalf of the wizarding world." The cheers from the DA deafened all the Angels in Heaven, they had survived a crucial battle and they had helped to win it, nothing could curb their relief and happiness at not only surviving but also winning.  
  
Amidst the cheers, Harry and Cho sought each other out and walked over to the west side of Hogwarts where the sun was setting, away from the battle, the hate, the anger, the fear, the pain, the death. They sat down and Harry put his arm round her waist and held her tight. She rested her head on his shoulder. They sat in a content silence for a few minutes, the contented, loving silence that only lovers share.  
  
"I was so worried about you before the battle, I'm so glad you survived." Said Cho quietly, breaking the silence a few minutes later.  
  
"I'm glad you survived too, I wouldn't be able to live without you."  
  
"Yes you would, it would hurt at first but you would get over it." Harry took her chin between his finger and thumb and gently turned her head so she was looking at him. Cho almost gasped out loud at all the emotions in his startling emerald green eyes. Fear, sadness, worry, loneliness were the most obvious but there was something else there, something that ran deeper then all the other emotions, love.  
  
"No, I wouldn't, losing you would be like losing this." And he gently took her right hand and pressed against his heart,  
  
"I can't live without you, if you die a part of me dies with you," tears were brimming in her eyes, "I love you more than I can tell you, if I had the tongue of an angel I still couldn't tell you how much I love you." Harry said, his voice filled with passion.  
  
"I love you more than life itself." Said Cho. And with that she flung her arms around his neck and together they drowned in the beautiful passion that flooded them.  
  
They sat clutching each other,  
  
"It's out there somewhere." Said Cho eventually.  
  
"What is?"  
  
"The candle in the dark." Harry looked at her for a minute,  
  
"No it's not," Cho looked at him puzzled, "It's right here, you're the candle in the dark to me, you always have been and you always will be" Cho looked at him again, they slowly leaned in and kissed, filling that kiss with all the love and passion they could muster and, for the second time that day, they drowned in passion.  
  
A/N IMPORTANT PLEASE READ.  
  
First of all I'm really sorry that this chapter wasn't uploaded in December, I had a load of problems with my computer that stopped me from uploading, then I went to Malaysia and I couldn't upload there so I'm really, really sorry! Thanks to all my reviewers, you have made this story worth writing and you have made it a pleasure to write. Especially to LogicalRaven and Anime-Master7.  
  
The second part to this trilogy will be uploaded in about week; the second fic is called "The Second Darkness"  
  
LogicalRaven- Thank you so much for all your reviews, your support and advice from the very beginning has meant a lot to me, cheers.  
  
Keep reading and reviewing and check out the second part, 'cos I'm gonna keep writing!  
  
Fireboy. 


End file.
